


The Silk of a Soul

by thingsishouldntbedoing - discontinued (arminoni)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2017-12-30 17:05:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1021219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arminoni/pseuds/thingsishouldntbedoing%20-%20discontinued
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The reign of the Dracon had fallen to the onslaught of humanity, leaving their legacy of terror behind in the songs of bards and fairytales. Now, an era later, breeds of wyverns and drakes are kept as beasts of burden and battle mounts reducing the once ever-present dragons to nothing but a long-past nightmare fallen into legend. That is, until one unlucky thief finds himself trapped between humanity’s fear and the unravelling of the cords of fate that bind their world together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **thingsishouldntbedoing:** Hello! Welcome to the first collaboration between WindWolf0097 and myself! Between the two of us we have some really fabulous ideas so with a little wheedling from all of you and a perfect combination of two writers who work well together we have managed to bring you THIS! 
> 
> We really hope you enjoy our creation as much as we enjoy bringing it to you. Feel free to message us on tumblr or leave us a comment here on AO3. We love hearing from you! <3
> 
>  **WindWolf0097:** Hi. She said everything I wanted to say. What a jerk. 
> 
> **tracking:** thingsishouldntbedoing, windwolf0097, fic: the silk of a soul

Sharp eyes, the color of the cold brick alleys they were reflecting, flickered between the handles of a pristine set of three dimensional maneuver gear and an ‘empty’ building. The run-down stone structure seemed long abandoned. The male, cloaked entirely in black, kept a careful eye on the windows of the building; even if it was supposed to be empty there was no guarantee. Besides, if the raven-haired individual’s sources were to be trusted- and generally they were- there was an impressive cache of valuables hidden inside. Just who they belonged to was somewhat of a mystery, but the thief was more than willing to take a risk given the promised riches.

Unbeknownst to him the thief was being watched with interest from the shadows of the attic, glinting turquoise eyes curious about the presence of this man on his property. _His_ property. Teeth glinted in the pale starlight, cast by a moonless sky, shifting to the back of the room. He would wait, at least, to give this person a chance to explain before he killed him for trespassing.

With catlike strides, the shadowy being crept into the overhanging archway, deftly settling onto one knee and slipping a lockpick into the rusting key slot. Still glancing around at his surroundings with distrust the thief gained access to the dilapidated construction, pushing at the splintering wooden door with trepidation. Much to his surprise and pleasure, the ancient looking hinges didn’t protest in the least as the heavy panel swung inwards to reveal a relatively clean environment. Taking another few silent strides and examining the room brought to attention a literal trove of sparkling objects, everything from small coins to exquisite necklaces exposed by the faded light filtering in from the cracked windows.

His watcher scampered silently along the second floor, tongue burning with the flavor of a muffling spell that sparked his senses and turned his world grey. He swung his upper body down into the rafters of the first floor, hindquarters tucked up through the hole as he braced on his knees. His world flickered with scarlet bursts as the scent of jasmine billowed into his nostrils; the silent words rolling on his lips to hide him in the shadows once more as the man stilled to examine his property.

“Just what do you think you’re doing? Tell me who you are,” a cruel voice curled around his prey from the dark, stroking against the nape of his neck, rumbling at the base of his spine. The spell poured from his mouth like hot cream, rich and comfortable on his tongue as it spilled into the room and left a warmth behind that stagnated against the trespasser's body and washed over him in a heady rush.

Breath catching in shock at the unexpected sound and sensation, the thief dropped into a crouch, sharp steel blades at the ready before he’d even made the conscious decision to draw them. Tensing in place, he waited for the owner of the voice to make himself seen.

“Do you want the truth or the pretty version?”

“Amuse me,” the voice replied with spite, “Before I turn you into a treasure as well.”

“Who the fuck are you kidding? The name’s Levi, and if you recognize it, you know I’m treasure already. I was looking for a somewhere to take a shit and your trash pile seemed like the perfect place.” Even faced with an unseen enemy, one of unknown power and violence, the slate-eyed man couldn’t help but let the vulgar words roll off his tongue. It was an entertainment, a comfort to steel his nerves as he prepared to fight for his life. "Out of curiosity: who the hell does this belong to, anyway?"

The spellcaster perched on the rafters flicked his tongue across his lips, tasting the remnants of his previous invocation, crawling along the rafters to get a better look at his trespasser. He didn’t seem intimidating to say the least, short and bound into a harness with a sour look to his shadowed face. He wondered how long he could toy with him. Perhaps he would make a good thrall.

“I figure if I’m going to keep you, I might as well give you my name: you may call me Eren,” he bound another spell on his tongue, the bitter taste of the incantation made him cringe but it spilled over his prey like trickling ice water. He knew this meant the risk of exposure, casting a powerful thralling spell meant dropping his guard, but it was worth having this man with all his talents under his control. _He can bring me more._

Feeling a wintry prickle crawl down his spine, the black-clad man shuddered, tightening his fingers around the weapons in his hands. Sensing movement just above him, his head whipped upwards to view a figure crouched on the wooden support beams criss-crossing below the ceiling. Narrowing his eyes and cursing his own inattentiveness, Levi pulled the triggers on both hilts of his blades. A sharp hiss announced the projection of two wires, barbed tips sticking into the wood of the rafters and pulling him upwards. Swinging his weight to the side, the rogue used the gas-powered maneuver gear to shove the other male to the floor, smirking slightly as the sorcerer’s body hit the ground with a thump. Springing down and landing next to the prone form, he sheathed his longer blades and pulled out a dagger, pinning this ‘Eren’ to the floor.

“What was that earlier? About amusing you? Well well, it seems as though you’re going to be the one amusing me.”

Eren’s long brown hair was thrown back from his face, turquoise eyes wide with surprise as he looked up at the man above him. Why didn’t it work? There was a flicker of anger in the dark depths of his gaze as he formed another spell in his mouth, burning like acid on his tongue. The windows behind him slammed open accompanied by a shower of glass shards. A sharp gust of wind sent his captor tumbling into the other room as he scrambled to his feet, lifted by the force of his own spell.

Levi grunted as he was thrown across the room, landing heavily on his shoulder and rolling across the rough flooring. As he was slowing, he used the movement to help him scramble to his feet, drawing one of the blades of the three dimensional maneuver gear to replace the dagger that had been knocked out of his grip with a clatter. He stared with narrowed eyes at his attacker, on edge as if there were an electrical current buzzing through the air.

“Don’t think you can come in here and take advantage of a lapse of attention,” Eren hissed, fingers spiralling with silken colors that wove together as they rose like tendrils of steam inked by the light of a viridian flame.

“What the _fuck_ are you?” The thief spat out almost violently, lips curled into a snarl around the words.

The sorcerer’s uncertainty flickered across his face, the sharp edges of his canines glinting in the sickly green glow of the ether rising from his hand, “What are _you?_ ” He countered, “Are you human?” The smile faded into suspicion.

“Of course I’m human you unbelievable moron. What else would I be? I’m not the one throwing around fucking shockwaves and- wait. You sound different.”

“It was a spell… you came in here to steal my things and I want you out,” his voice was less ominous. In the dim light of the cottage he seemed to shrink, not the imposing and foreboding figure he had been in the glow of his magic. Long tendrils of brown hair were pushed back by tanned fingers almost nervously as he turned his body protectively, “How did you.. resist me?”

“What do you mean ‘resist you?’ Did you try to fucking put me under some kind of spell, like those military asshole’s wyverns can do?” The sudden disappearance of the bright tendrils of color left ice-gray eyes squinting in the darkness, trying to adjust to the change in light. Levi, thoroughly confused by the shift from aggression to defensiveness, stood with his weapons still drawn.

“I--” An ethereal, inhuman screech echoed over the cottage as thunder boomed loud enough to shake the remaining glass out of the frames. All at once the night was bright and chaotic; a stark contrast to the pale starlight that had filtered through the glass before. The thunder shook the house again as a second, answering scream shattered the still air. The image of the boy seemed to flicker like a mirage in a sandstorm as he jerked his hand against the shattered glass. Blood streamed down his wrist as he started for the door; a long, dark tail emerging behind him and slithering around the corner as he left.

Unwilling to let the younger male escape without some form of closure to their encounter, the thief took a moment to snag one of the more valuable looking necklaces from the piles surrounding him before running to the door. No longer caring about stealth due to the commotion outside he bolted through the open door, fingers scrambling for the handles of the maneuver gear on instinct.

The sight he was met with upon exit was like nothing he’d ever seen before.

The night sky was inky black, once sparkling stars concealed by great plumes of choking smoke emanating from the wooden rooftops currently awash in a great sea of flame. The source was obvious as Levi stared up at a massive scaly beast that towered over the burning buildings. He knew the word for it- everyone knew the word- but never before had he ever whispered ‘dragon’ in such an awed voice, incapable of truly processing the situation before him.

Is this… is this monster that kid?

Moving on impulse, Levi clambered up the great tail swishing before him, using the towering spines along the creature’s back to assist in his ascent as tendrils of white and grey smoke spilled from between curled lips; glistening white teeth sharp in relief.

The wicked length of Eren’s horned head shifted in the flickering firelight, slitted pupil focusing on the human climbing up the ridges of his spine. Massive leathery wings opened to either side; careful not to destroy the cottage they’d been in only moments before as he rose onto his hind legs, forearms pulled in close to his body. His chest cavity swelled and with a great breath they were off, muscles slithering beneath slick scales that shone pure black, tail whipping as a keel to direct his movements.

The smoke and burning buildings seemed to shrink beneath them with each heavy wingbeat, white and blue flames billowing out of the dragon’s mouth and fading behind them in a steaming wake in the damp night air. Levi, who had never been farther off the ground than the tallest spire of the Sina district’s grand cathedral, drew a breath in shock as he watched the flaming city fall away beneath them.

Eren, or at least what seemed to be Eren, lifted his head and screeched as another dragon nearly three times his size glided over them. He turned as a second dragon of his own size soared towards them; a fountain of sparks and plasma spewing forth from his open jaws and searing the other dragon’s face. His new-found opponent gleamed golden in the starlight, snapping its fangs at the darker beast’s passenger as they collided.

* * *

Their wingbeats broke the night air of his study high in the Southern Watchtower of Shingashina. A man sat, the fingers tangled in his blonde hair loosened as he lifted iridescent eyes from the pages of a musty text on his desk, heart weak in his chest as he looked past the man sitting in the frame of the arched window. It was a haunting, billowing sound like leather in the wind, and when the otherworldly shriek of a creature long thought extinct joined the steady flapping Armin caught his hand over his paling face.

The sound brought back the stories his grandfather used to tell of Dragon Mages and their sires: dragons who opened the path for humans to channel magic. These humans learned to manipulate the world in the same way as the all powerful dragons that had controlled them. It was these mages, the draegi, who would ultimately lead to their masters’ downfall. However, in later years their bloodlines fell into ruin; leaving lesser sons of greater sires with a title whose influence waned as their power did. The draega blood, diluted through years of ill-practiced breeding and irresponsible youth had come to cull only one mage worthy of the title of draega in a generation. And until now there had not been a draega as worthy of their bloodline as Armin Arlert. The young man that stood on the precipice of understanding his own kind once more as his lips parted around the silent word that rose from his throat.

Armin had never seen a dragon for himself, had never heard their cries but in fever dreams caused by the draega blood in his veins. And until he stood with fear lodged deep in his chest as a shining ruby form soared past with a golden escort in its wake, he had never thought he would.

“Dragons,” he rose slowly in the once quiet night; the sound of his crisp white shirt shifting beneath his harness the only noise in the room as he neared the window.

“It can’t be,” the man in the window sat up from his relaxed position in the archway. The mismatched shades of his undercut stood in stark contrast in the flickering gaslight of the library. “Armin, say that again…” He turned his body when the mage shoved the shutters back down again in the burst of air from the dragons’ wings as they passed by once more.

“Those are dragons!” The word tingled on his tongue like a curse, fluorescent eyes flashing with a swirling blend of emotions- each coming and going before it could settle into the brilliant blue hue.

“Jean!” A man with short dark hair threw the doors to the study open, freckles spattered across his face. “Jean, did you see them? What are your commands, sir?”

“They were kinda hard to miss, Marco. Gather the elite troops, tell them to gear up and grab their mounts. We’re not bringing anyone without combat experience, do you hear me?” Standing and pulling his jacket on with a flourish, Jean looked back towards the blonde at his side, narrowing his golden eyes in thought before speaking. “You’re coming with us, we’ll probably need your skills. Are you flying double with me or taking your own wyvern?”

“I’m not sure,” Armin searched Jean’s face for a moment, then looked over at Marco, he could feel his heart flutter under the gaze of the commanding officer and sink down into his gut at the soft eyes of his friend.

Marco’s eyes flickered between them at the mage’s hesitance, “Draega you should go with him. At least until Commander Erwin shows.”

Armin nodded, hurriedly pulling on the leather gloves from his back pocket and following Jean out of the room. “Marco can you make sure we have a wide berth? The egression might influence your soldiers’ effectiveness.”

“The last time you hit them with aftershocks they were high for three days, don’t knock them out of the sky Arlert,” the Captain warned.

”Is there a way to concentrate your magic so that the soldiers aren’t touched by it? The effects of egression are only strong if they come into direct contact… right?” Marco asked as he trailed behind; thinking with distaste back to the time where he’d had to fight a week’s worth of vertigo after accidental exposure to one of Armin’s spells.

“That’s uh… not quite how it works,” Armin chuckled nervously.

“Well maybe you should ride with me just in case?” Marco suggested.

“If I go down they’ll need you here, Marco, if it makes you that uncomfortable Armin can ride alone.”

Marco hesitated, caught between them for one agonizing moment, “No. Armin go with him and keep him safe.”

Jean’s whistle broke the sound barrier, answered by a screech in much the same pitch by a sleek mahogany wyvern that rose from the camp’s aerie to answer its master’s call. The wyverns were smaller in comparison to the dragons now soaring over Shinganshina, with wings that stretched from their shoulders in the place of arms. The mahogany steed perched before her master, head proud and crest shining, long tail whipping around as an aide. Marco, taking cues from his formation leader, whistled a short tune of high-low-high which was echoed by an umber beast that hovered at the edge of the roof, waiting for the space to land.

Once he was astride the shoulders of his mount the Captain reached down to take Armin’s hand and hoisted him with one arm into the saddle behind him. Clipping the hooks of his maneuver gear onto the leather and steel harness of his mount he clicked his tongue and leaned forward, holding tightly to the strap under his palms as the wyvern reared onto its hind legs and pumped its wings to raise them into the air.

“There’s three!” Armin cried, clutching Jean’s harness at his hips as they flew. “Jean, three dragons!” He sat tall enough on the saddle to see over the Captain’s shoulder, watching as a dragon rose from the city with glistening obsidian wings.

“Where-- where the hell did that third one come from?!” Jean looked to either side of himself, scanning the horizon as if mentioning the word ‘dragon’ again would have caused yet another to appear out of thin air. He absently noted with satisfaction that his troops were rising alongside him, forming a large ‘V’ of wyverns and their riders.

Breaking formation and flying closer to his captain, Marco maneuvered alongside the larger wyvern and shouted to him, working to be heard over the din of wings flapping and wind rushing past their ears.

“Sir! Are we bringing more troops than we had planned in order to compensate?”

“Is there anyone left that has been in a battle before? Especially with three I’m not willing to sacrifice untrained troops for dragon fodder,” Jean asked, knowing very well that most of the elite troops were at the outpost farthest from the Maria district.

Marco shook his head in understanding, just as unwilling to lose comrades as his commander. Moving back to his normal position in the skein the freckled boy stared ahead, watching in horror as the city below crackled in a growing inferno. Lit by the blaze, a great black wyrm grappled with a gold-plated monster of equal size.

The cavalry was still a ways off but the immense size of the dragons allowed for the details of their forms to be seen: great hulking beasts with shining scales that glinted in the firelight. The similarities between the two dracon ended there, however. The snarling serpentine shape of the ebony creature was emitting a waterfall of sparks and small fireballs from its gaping jaws into the face of the golden dragon. Wicked silver horns curved back from its head and led into a line of spines that flowed in choppy waves down to the tip of the tail where they converged into a sharp arrowhead. Black scales highlighted how lithe the form was, sharp shines outlining the muscles of the powerful limbs and tapered, dynamic wings. A fiend made for speed and power in equal measure, it seemed almost a separate species from its combatant.

Emitting a great roar, the shining yellow dragon slammed armored jaws together mere meters from the neck of the other. Its shorter dark horns clacked loudly against the heavy plates layered across its back. Compared to the other, it was stocky and heavy, its build more resembling that of an enormous draft horse. Rather than a spade at the end of its thick tail it possessed a club-like weapon of amassed armor plates which it swung back and forth violently.

The dueling monster’s curved talons struck out at each other, the sound of the collisions ringing through the air like tempered steel blades clashing. As the soldiers approached, the molten pupilless eyes of the golden dragon fixed on the quickly closing wyverns.

A screech from above announced the attention from the largest dragon, gliding almost lazily as the other two fought, black eyes liquid beneath its ruby brows. Its spell curled around its lips.

“Watch out!” Armin cried, magic setting his world afire as he stood behind Jean and threw a spell high into the air. The Other burned through his body, the flavors of his spell making his head spin for a moment, magic colliding and bursting into a thousand colors before his eyes and sending aftershocks through his bones. The resulting explosion had wyverns veering away from the battle and the flames that followed roasted riders on their mounts even as Armin’s cast again.

“CIRCLE BACK AROUND! STRIKE AT THEIR SOFT SPOTS!” Soldiers brave enough to hazard the fight were whipping between the dueling dragons. One was mercilessly snapped in half by the golden, swatted out of the sky as the black dragon curled around its opponent in midair and sank his teeth into the soft underlayer of his throat. Their ruby spectator seemed to be concerned now, clamping its jaws on the black dragon’s tail and jerking him away, threatening to rip its body in two.

“NO!” Armin panicked, sweeping his hand through the air to gather Other between his lips as spellwords graced his tongue. He was a wonder to watch, the swift and beautiful shape of his lines in the glow of a curse held others enthralled even as his cast collided with the mouth of the crimson dragon. It screamed loud enough to shake their wyverns, whipping its head wildly as smoke billowed from its mouth. The black dragon broke away, ripping away soft layers of the golden’s flesh, feline eyes glinting ferocious as dark blood streamed from its mouth.

“There’s a man!” Marco cried and Jean’s attention immediately turned away from the colors and flavors of Armin’s spells to seek out the black dragon that was now soaring away and around for a second attack. There, silhouetted like an apparition in the starlight, was a man standing sturdy against the slick scales of the dragon’s back. His dark hair was blown back from a pale face, an arm curled around one of the spines to keep himself aboard, black cloak billowing out behind him. He made quite a scene: proud and collected as he spoke aloud to the dragon beneath him, shifting his weight naturally to account for the drag from the swift turns of his mount.

“IT’S THRALLING THE WYVERNS!” The draega’s voice rejoined the fray, casting with a fury against the might of the largest dragon; barely able to stay standing as Jean avoided bursts of flame and pieces of his soldiers spit out by the golden dragon as its flesh knitted back together.

Indeed, some of the riderless wyverns had begun to strike viciously at their former comrades, flames and ice flickering out of their mouths as they collided and locked talons, wings beating fruitlessly against each other.

“COMMANDER ERWIN!” A cry went up as more wyverns neared, formations perfect in the flickering lights of the city below. They were swift and vicious, combining seamlessly with Jean’s division and joining the fray without a single word.

* * *

Levi felt his heart drop as he saw the rest of the Recon Corps arriving, clambering his way up towards Eren’s head. “Those are elites! They’re coming to kill all of you! You’re going to be overwhelmed!” He slid and caught himself between the dragon’s shoulderblades.

“They kill infants and crack eggs,” it was the first time Levi had heard his mount speak, gliding above the burning city. Deep and thunderous, it shook his small body as it vibrated in the dragon’s ribcage.

“Do you know who they are?” Levi watched the cavalry sweep in and massacre the rogue wyverns, magic exploding around them as one soldier dared to brave the fight against the crimson beast. “What is that big one?”

“Big,” the dragon replied with a chuckle.

“Smartass,” Levi ground his heel into the soft spot behind the dragon’s head and it snapped at him. “You’re wounded,” he glanced behind at the deep gouges and open wounds that now littered the dragon’s body, watching the flesh become whole again.

“As is with all those who fight.”

“What are you fighting for?” Levi frowned. “Shouldn’t you join--” the snarl that was torn from his ride’s cavernous throat had him staggering, clutching a spine for support.

Eren turned, white flames billowing from his mouth and singeing Levi’s clothes, returning to the battle with fangs bared. The cool night had turned to hell on earth, between the heat of the dragon’s body and the flames he spewed Levi was sweating in his black clothes, almost wishing he could pull the fabric away.

“Who is that casting?! I’ve never seen that kind of magic before,” Levi felt his skin tingle as they soared past a peal of fresh magic, sparks of energy bouncing off the dragon’s hide.

The wyvern and its riders soared before the head of the great dragon, a man with long blonde hair stood firm with one hand grasped onto the shoulder of his rider, the other spiked with colors as his mouth moved ceaselessly. Energy flared around him, Other gathering and expelling with each powerful breath of the summoner, but Levi could almost tell that he was growing weak in the match against his better.

“One of the Draegi, the Dragons’ Bane,” Eren replied calmly.

“LOOK OUT!” Levi yelled as a wyvern fell, crashing against them and bouncing off to the earth below. “Jesus you’re going to get us ki--” his words were cut off, breath leaving his body as they started into a dive. Wrapping both arms around the spine he’d been using for balance, he held tight enough to make his shoulders ache with the effort. Even-tempered as he tried to be, the steel-eyed man could feel his composure fraying with every blast of superheated air that whipped past his face.

As Eren slowed his dive, great wings snapping open like a parachute as he descended once more upon his armored foe, the brilliant red creature that had been warring with the mage let out an earth shattering screech. All at once, the battle fell into a daze of stuttering wingbeats and pained cries. The wyverns were shaking their heads from side to side, scrunching their eyes shut in attempts to relieve the sudden splitting pressure inside their skulls. The majority of the riders were unconscious, hanging limp in their saddles, only spared from a deadly fall by the cables of their maneuver gear connected to their steed’s harnesses.

Armin shielded Jean and himself, the screech bouncing off an ethereal barrier and splitting around them almost visibly, but in his attempt to save them he had been forced to throw his other arm around Jean’s neck. The gloves that had once covered his hands disintegrated from the use of his magic, falling to shreds in the force of the collision.

Levi winced, feeling his vision blur and darken as he was overcome with a wave of dizziness and nausea. Falling to his knees and pressing himself against the ebony form beneath him in efforts to avoid a fatal drop, he desperately clung to consciousness.

Eren turned his head, nictitating membrane sliding over his eyes to clear them as he sought out the matte form against his scales, then let out a roar of fury in return that echoed in the damp night air. Smoke and blood still hung against his nostrils, the aftershocks of a magic battle coloring his world green and pink; mingling flavors and scents of brutalized gardens, singed slaughterhouses, and white phosphorous overwhelming his senses.

As quickly and as mysteriously as they had appeared the golden and scarlet dragons had vanished into the night; leaving destruction and flames in their wake.

Only a few humans had recovered, the Commander of the Corps among them, his wyvern already making headway towards Eren and his rider. Jean followed, reeling a little from the egression, but conscious enough to know they had to capture this last dragon before it vanished as the others had.

“Go!” Levi choked against the silk of his scales, urging him forward as best he could. “Fucking run!” The long onyx tail whipped as they fled, flying faster and in longer sweeps than the wyverns.

“I cannot stay in this form much longer,” the dragon’s voice rumbled in his heart and made him weak.

“What the hell? You’re a god damned dragon!” Levi snarled. “Don’t you dare get me caught!”

Eren flapped his wings again exhaustedly, spreading them to glide high above the city, but his image seemed to falter. Levi felt his heart drop into his stomach as they began a gentle descent. He tried to rouse the dragon once more, stroking his hands beneath the fringe of spines on his head.

“Please wake up, I’m not about to die this way!”

With no answer and the ground rising to meet them Levi panicked, thinking now would be a good time to pray to whatever gods might save him as the dragon’s image flickered from existence and was replaced by the brown haired young man from before.

“What the hell kid!?” Suddenly he was falling instead of gliding and the world was getting closer at a rate he couldn’t quite describe, reaching out and grabbing desperately for Eren’s hand. _I can’t let him die._ Levi’s fingers slipped through Eren’s but with one final grab he caught hold of the boy’s wrist and pulled him close, snatching one of the handles to his maneuver gear and firing a grapple into a water tower as they passed. The harness yanked him hard enough he was certain he’d cracked a few ribs in their sudden deceleration, but they had avoided a rather grisly impact with the ground and for that he was grateful.

“Hunt them down!” The Commander’s voice echoed through the smoking city as the cavalry moved through to help put the fires out, gliding towards the water tower. “Capture that man!”

“Fuck. Fuck you, kid. Fuck me for tagging along. Fuck this. Fuck,” he dropped down onto a beam of the water tower and fired another grapple, swinging between buildings with skill unrivalled. “I’m a fucking idiot. You’re a fucking moron. We’re fucked. Shit. If I get caught it’s your fucking fault,” he wove between buildings and landed heavily on the ground. _Damn, I’m certainly being creative with my language today. Fuck._

“We can spot him from the air, Commander,” Marco reported.

“Good, bring him in. He knows something about those dragons,” Erwin frowned.

“I’ve got a sight on him,” Jean flew past them with a semi-unconscious draega wrapped around his waist.

“You can’t count on me right now,” Armin murmured against his collar. His fingers had been singed by the great dragon’s last screech, burned by the flow of Other through his body, and curled; bloody and trembling into Jean’s harness.

“We shouldn’t need to, don’t worry about it,” his wyvern’s tail brushed the rooftops as they sought out the running figure; driven to the ground by the cavalry.

“Be careful, even cornered and weak the dragons are dangerous okay?”

“Sure Armin,” Jean agreed.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Levi hazarded a glance up and shifted Eren’s weight in his arms; letting his head limply fall back. “Why the hell are you asleep!? For fuck’s sake you worthless sack of shit- wake the hell up!” He was prepared to glide again, despite his aching sternum, terrified of not getting away without the maneuver gear; but something stopped him.

“Don’t take another step,” a voice said, a wyvern’s head emerging from the shadow of the alleyway. A freckled young man with dark hair tilted his chin up, frowning down at the two.

“We’ve got you cornered,” Jean announced from his mount as they perched on the rooftop.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Really? Just- fuck me, literally light me on fire. Wake up you useless asswagon,” the stress of the day weighed heavy on Levi’s aching shoulders, his heart pounding in his chest as he was cornered for the first time in his life. He adjusted the human form of the dragon in his arms, cradling him closer to his body protectively.

He was forced to make a decision: either test fate and try to escape using the maneuver gear even with the cavalry closing in, or to run back towards the way he came on foot and attempt to outrun the soldier ahead of him.

“Before you run or my lovely subordinates put you in jail,” a voice called from behind him as a third wyvern landed. There was no mistaking who was aboard this particular wyvern; with a beautiful grey body and speckled brown wings and hindquarters there was only one of its kind in the kingdom. “I’d like to make you an offer,” Commander Erwin smiled charmingly from atop his steed.

“I’d like you to get fucked, but let’s hear it.”

_Well that was a smart move, Levi._

* * *

The yells of the guards outside roused her from her sleep, sitting up in bed to see the Captain of her guard alert and stiff in the backlight of the castle’s windows. “Ymir, what is it?” There was tension written in her body, tanned knuckles pale on the hilt of her sword, shoulders high and straight.

The doors to the chambers burst open and a messenger was led in by two members of the Military Police, “What is the meaning of this?” The armor-clad woman asked with all the authority of a thousand generals.

“My Lady Ymir, we have received word from the Shinganshina Watchtower that _dragons_ have returned on the Southern Border of the Maria district,” the courier seemed shaken, glancing around the room in efforts to avoid eye contact with either the Captain or the High Queen of Collossa. “We do not have any further information at this time.”

“Thank you for the message, you’re free to go.” the High Queen said softly, glancing again at her Captain. “Dragons?”

“It would seem so, I’ll send a convoy to assist in the recovery and to assess the damages,” Ymir watched her Queen walk to the window; standing like a goddess in the starlight.

“Yes, please. Make accommodations for myself as well, if you will.”

“What do you mean, Historia?” Ymir’s eyes widened as she watched her Queen turn.

“If there are dragons once more on the Southern Border it is time I saw the walls with my own eyes,” she told her Captain with bravery shining in her blue eyes. “I cannot allow my people to die while I remain here.”

“You mean…”

“Prepare a wyvern, unassuming would be best, we will travel independently of the convoy. I wish to see the real damage and not that which a Queen would be exposed to,” she unravelled the braid that held her long, blonde hair back from her face.

“Then I will go with you, my Queen,” Ymir bowed to her.

“Yes, of course,” she smiled.

_Dragons._

_The word that could change the life of thousands in a single breath._

_The word that spelled doom for all of humanity once more._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi doesn't understand how dragons function and Armin has a rough day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **thingsishouldntbedoing:** Hey guys thanks for all the CRAZY hits we've had on this one fic! We're so excited you like it. We really enjoy writing these particular iterations of these characters and we hope you enjoy it as well. 
> 
> **windwolf0097:** I don't talk. That's not my job.
> 
>  **tracking:** thingsishouldntbedoing, windwolf0097, **fic: the silk of a soul**

“Before you run or my lovely subordinates put you in jail I’d like to make you an offer,” Commander Erwin smiled charmingly from atop his steed.

“I’d like you to get fucked, but let’s hear it.”

“Petulant, it’s adorable,” the blonde swung down and walked forward; stride easy and long. “What’s that boy you have there?”

The dragon was limp in his arms, head hanging down with the pale expanse of his throat exposed to the cool air. He seemed to be _steaming_ as if he were too hot for the condensation clinging to his damp skin. His long, dark hair clung to his forehead in strings, the glimmer of jade beneath unconscious lids shining in the gaslit street.

“Mine,” Levi answered a little defensively. He certainly wasn’t his, in fact he’d rather have nothing to do with him, but he wasn’t about to hand over the dragon without a fight. His trust for these uniformed scrubs was less than that for the boy in his grip.

Erwin’s perceptive blue eyes searched his face as he towered over him; boring straight through him until someone spoke, “Commander Erwin.”

“You’ve rejoined the world of the living, have you?” The Commander’s voice softened as he sought the gaze of the speaker.

“Let me… look at him,” Armin batted Jean’s hand away as he tried to keep him on his mount.

“No,” Levi dropped a foot back and cradled his fingers against the triggers in his hands. He was caught between moments, incapable of moving forward or backward; frozen with indecision and distaste for any of his options.

“I won’t hurt you, or him,” Armin slid down and landed heavily on the ground. His face was pale and drawn, scrunched as he fought exhaustion, but his iridescent eyes gave off an eerie glow as he neared.

“Dragons’ Bane,” Levi recalled what Eren had said, drawing another step back.

“I am the bane of no dragon, let me look at him, he’s--” Armin recognized the boy’s face and his heart dropped into his stomach. “Is he breathing?” His voice had become panicked, bloodied fingers reaching out in a nervous attempt to touch him.

“What’s going on, Arlert?” Erwin frowned, mind whirring as he started to put the pieces together. Levi could sense the change from impersonal concern and curiosity to panic and horror in a fraction of a second. He still clutched the unconscious male in his arms close to his chest, unwilling to let any threat near him, but the desperation in the approaching draega’s face was enough to instill a sense of trust within the black-haired thief. Maybe it was the unmistakable color-taste of The Other at the ends of his nerves clouding his thoughts, but he slackened the vicegrip in which he’d held the hilts of his maneuver gear and ceased his slow steps backwards. “Yeah, he’s breathing,” Levi could feel Eren moving, shallow breaths and thudding heart resounding through a superheated body. He was certainly alive, despite his comatose state.

 _No, no it can’t be._ Armin fell to his knees, legs failing him entirely and examined the brown-haired male’s face. The dragon’s human form hung limply in the rogue’s arms and the mage could feel The Other rolling off him in uncontrolled waves. Apart from the flux of power emanating from him, Armin recognised him as Eren Jaeger. _We’ve been friends for so long. How could I have missed this?_

* * *

“Explain it again, Armin,” Jean rubbed his temples as Marco brought him a cup of whatever could pass for caffeinated. “Thanks,” he caught his jaw and rubbed his thumb against his freckles. “You did good out there,” his voice quieted as his eyes softened.

Armin glanced away, searching for something, _anything_ in his study to look at, and found Commander Erwin watching him with interest. He was sitting at the desk with one elbow propping up his head as he stirred his tea. Blonde strands fell over his forehead; windswept from their ride and his jacket hung over the back of the chair, abandoned in the aftermath of the battle. Fear now mingled with the jealousy that burned in Armin’s chest.

“Are your fingers okay?” Marco sounded concerned as he walked over and set down tea for Armin as well.

“Yes, of course, they’ll heal in time.”

Marco looked scolded, rubbing the back of his neck, “Anyway Jean asked… if you’d explain it again… and honestly I’m not even sure I understand most of what you’re saying.”

“I’m sorry, Marco, I’m a little on edge right now,” and when he glanced back at Erwin he found glinting blue eyes watching him again. He rather wanted to yank on his bolo tie until he wasn’t looking at him anymore.

“This all ties into your magic somehow, I’m sure,” Erwin finally spoke.

“Yes, it does. Dragons have always been bound to The Other... I’m not sure how to explain it, we all know _of_ The Other but it’s much more challenging to explain _about it_ in layman’s terms for someone who doesn’t understand magic.”

“I suppose you would be the best to do that, then.”

“Y-Yes I suppose so, Commander,” Armin hesitated. “Where do I begin?” He fiddled with the strips of cloth wrapped around each of his fingers and stroked a spot behind his ear as he glanced at Jean.

“The Other would be the best place,” Jean answered, eyes flickering away from Armin and onto Marco.

“Right so The Other is… well it’s a place in a way,” Armin sat heavily in a chair and folded his fingers together. “It’s the place between worlds almost, like a space where nothing exists right? We know that our Souls go there, and that it’s where the magic comes from for Draegi. It’s also the dragon homeworld… sort of?” His eyes flickered, shifting from their normal brilliant blue to a subdued grey that mingled with hints of white and gold.

“Dragons, as the draegi know them, are creatures of immense power, they can’t be defined in the same way we define _human_ or _feline_ , it’s simply too difficult. They can use The Other to battle and destroy and create in ways that a simple draega like myself couldn’t possibly understand.” There was something haunting about the way the color drained from Armin’s irises as he spoke.

“Simple draega, I doubt there’s anyone that would call you _simple_ ,” Marco said as Armin rose from his chair and walked to the windows.

“I never thought I’d see one… that I’d be able to understand their ways… there’s so much I understand, so much knowledge passed on in my blood but to…” his hands curled around the cold stone sill. The cool breeze brought the scent of flames and winter rain as clouds broke above the smoking city. It brushed past him, caressing the curve of his cheek, combing its chilly fingers through the long strands of his hair before breaking upon the pages of books and throwing papers into disarray on his work table. “I realized, all along, that I was closer to a dragon than I ever thought possible.”

“You mean that kid we have downstairs?” Jean asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he tore his eyes away from the draega’s silhouette, looking to Marco instead. The freckled boy smiled reassuringly, patting his hand. Jean wasn’t sure if he was misunderstanding what had just happened or if he was simply ignoring it. _I can’t keep being like this._

“Eren is his name, I grew up in the same town… he was a child like me I couldn’t… imagine… dragons shouldn’t age, that I know of, so I’m not sure how…” Armin’s brows knitted together.

“Perhaps it is time you asked him?” Erwin suggested. “It might be easier for you to try and write all this down for me rather than explaining it verbally.”

“Yes, of course I didn’t think of that,” Armin turned, eyes returning quickly to their standard blue. Marco made a mental note to ask about that, he’d only seen Armin’s eye color change once before and it hadn’t been a good thing.

“Very good, you’ve done well Draega, take some rest and feel free to visit our captives in the meantime. I have some business to attend to,” Erwin rose and picked up his jacket. “Kirchstein,” he gestured and the Captain rose to follow him.

“I’ll see you later,” Jean said to no one in particular.

 _I’m sure you will_ , Armin shuffled the papers back together that had been shifted by the winds.

* * *

“HEY! YOU MOTHER FUCKING COCKSUCKER YOU COME BACK HERE AND LET ME OUT OF THESE CHAINS!” He strained against the cuff around his ankle and shook the bars of his cell. “FUCKFACE, GET THE HELL BACK HERE OR I SWEAR TO THE GODS I WILL--” a groan from behind him had Levi turning curiously, voice quieting.

Eren’s bleary eyes flickered open, brain throbbing against his skull as he made a weak attempt at sitting up. With the world spinning around him, he flopped back against the straw-covered floor and rolled onto his side, groaning. “Where’re we?” He murmured.

“We’re in jail, you fuckwit. You couldn’t stay awake long enough to get us away from the military, and now we’re in jail. Congratulations, can I get you an award for being the single most useless shithead ever?” The grey-eyed man growled, taking out his anger on any living creature capable of hearing him. He’d already scared all the mice out of the cell, raving about how unsanitary the conditions were and being generally annoyed with his previously unconscious companion.

Eren groaned groggily, a soft whine escaping the back of his throat, “It’s been a long time since my traduct was opened that wide…” His eyes still seemed unfocused, shadow flickering in the pale torchlight of the dungeon.

“Since your what was opened how wide? You into some kinky shit or something?” Levi’s annoyance shifted to curiosity, not understanding what Eren had just said. “Anyway, how are you feeling?”

“Traduct,” Eren repeated. “It’s like… a valve,” he lifted his head with some effort. “It controls how much Other flows through me… if it’s too wide after being closed I… am not used to it.” His pupils were blown wide even against the light of the flames.

“You didn’t answer my question; are you okay? I’m going to get out of here as soon as possible and it’d be good if you could come with me,” he asked again, observing the brunette. He looked like he’d been drugged, hazy eyes not even trying to focus and teal irises reduced to thin rings around the outside of flat, shiny black.

“I’m… okay,” Eren murmured. “How are you going to get out of here?”

“They have to take us out of here at some point, and I’m not exactly a novice at hand-to-hand combat. I figure I can risk death and use the maneuver gear to get out of here,” he looked skeptical at the other’s answer.

Eren smiled vaguely, sitting up a little more and bending his knees, “Ugh this egression… I’ve never felt anything like it before…” he blinked stupidly, sniffing when a guard placed a tray on the ground and slid it through the slot in their door. Cold stew and bread curled into his nostrils and he curled his lip in disgust. “Mmph…”

Levi’s expression mimicked Eren’s, not at the food itself but at the thought of eating something in such an unsanitary environment. The food probably wasn’t in clean dishes either, and he certainly didn’t want to fall ill because he accepted a meal while he was in jail. “What’s egression?” He asked, still eying the tray warily.

“You don’t feel it?” Eren asked blearily, sliding the tray towards himself anyway. He felt like he hadn’t eaten in days, dipping the bread into the stew and bringing it to his mouth.

“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Unless you’re asking if I can feel the vague sensation of my IQ dropping from being in the same room as you, no. Also, that’s disgusting,” he scrunched his nose, motioning to the food.

“What?” He looked at the bread for a moment. “But I’m hungry…” his stomach growled. “You interrupted my meal…”

“Do you know where that’s been? Because I don’t, and I don’t eat food that comes from fuck-knows-where. They probably drugged it.”

Eren focused on him for a moment, “You took something of mine.”

“Where the fuck did that come from. Does it matter? We’re in jail, you look half dead, and I’m keeping the damn necklace,” Levi crossed his arms across his chest rather childishly, scooting a little away from Eren in case he decided to act violently.

“I heard you take it when we left, I felt you remove it from my belongings. It belongs to me!” Eren told him, struggling onto his knees. “You will give it back.”

Continuing his brattish behavior, Levi slipped the chain of the necklace around his neck, adjusting the charm at the end of it so that it sparkled in the dim lighting. It was a gorgeous silver arrow-shaped pendant with inset amber pieces, shined to such a degree that the bright metal almost seemed white against the fiery flare of the stones. “Are you going to make me?”

A light flickered somewhere deep in Eren’s eyes and he bared his teeth, “Eren!” His head turned as a relieved voice cut through the haze in his mind.

“Armin?” The name felt familiar on his lips and a smile pulled vaguely at his face, lifting a hand.

“Thank the gods you’re okay,” the man reached a slender arm in through the bars to touch the dragon’s outstretched fingers and clutch them into his palm. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Badly, but I’ll recover… Armin…” he said his name again fondly, cradling his hands. “You’re hurt.”

“Not too bad, why is everyone so worried about this? But that’s… do you know where you are?” He coaxed him closer to pull his eyelids up and check the dilation of his pupils. “What… happened? I feel like I have so many questions and I don’t know if you even have any answers…”

“If what he’s said to me is any indication, ‘egression’ is to blame. I’d also like to point out that he’s an overly possessive child,” Levi grumbled, annoyed that the dragon’s attention was taken off of him. He was having fun teasing Eren, even with the dangerous glint in his turquoise eyes and the sharp-toothed snarl.

“Egression? But that shouldn’t happen to a dragon,” Armin caught Eren’s face in his hands. “Eren can you hear me? What’s happening? How long has he been like this?” He looked at Levi critically, as if he were supposed to know this was a bad thing.

“I was always happy to make friends with you… I was so lonely…” He murmured dreamily, less coherent in Armin’s presence than he was before.

“He was out since the end of the battle, just woke up about ten minutes ago. Kinda loopy, tried to eat… said something about a ‘traduct’?” The thief said, coming closer to observe the change in behavior. “He wasn’t this out of it until you came in here though.” _Should I be worried?_

“Ah well I’m sure I’m causing an influx for him, he’s just not used to manipulating this amount of power. Egression is essentially what happens when non-magic users come in contact with spells cast by draega or dragons. The body isn’t capable of handling Other the same way a dragon’s is, but I’m not sure I understand why it’s happening to him?” He caught Eren’s face in his hands. “I’m working on getting you out of here, okay? So don’t be afraid,” he purred through the bars and Eren smiled lazily against the pressure of his palms.

“So what, it makes you high and gives you a nasty case of vertigo?” _Why aren’t I entirely toasted, then? I was with him as he flew…_ “Why is he getting all cuddly with you, too? I almost got teeth in my neck a few minutes ago,” Levi complained. Of course, he’d been mocking the dragon about how he’d stolen his possessions at the time, but there was still a faint simmer of jealousy that burned somewhere deep in his gut. They’d fought together, but this mage had apparently been around longer. Tch.

“Well it certainly shouldn’t be happening to him… and we’ve been friends a long time, he knows me and probably feels more-- to whom does that necklace belong?” He wondered how he hadn’t put it together before now: Eren’s penchant for pocketing objects he thought others wouldn’t miss was indicative of his species.

“It belongs to me, why?” With a nearly invisible smirk, he thought to himself, _at least it’s mine now._ Eren certainly wasn’t getting it back any time soon, if the decision was in Levi’s hands. “So, you taking him and leaving me in here to rot? Because I really don’t appreciate that.”

“It’s mine…” Eren murmured. “He’s a thief he was… stealing my things and I caught him.”

“A thief? Give that to me,” Armin told him with a scowl. “I’m not even happy they put you in here with him.”

Levi looked offended, grey eyes narrowing and brows drawing together slightly. “Excuse you, without me Eren would be dead right now. Who the fuck do you think has cracked ribs and bruises up the ass from saving him?” He drew the necklace in tighter to himself, defensive. _I’m sure it wasn’t his to begin with, anyway._

Armin hesitated, “Well you did try to keep him away from my superior… I suppose I thank you for that.”

“ _Kill_ \--” Eren growled the word low in his throat, fangs glinting. “ _Kill the dragons that hurt_ my _people._ ” The emphasis seemed odd but Armin wasn’t about to question him.

“Eren you have to get a hold of yourself!” Armin had only a vague understanding of what exactly the traduct was and how it worked. Something about a valve that managed the flow of Other into the bodies of dragons, it was what maintained their connection to their homeworld and through which their powers were controlled but the full understanding was something the draegi had never been privy to. “Eren! You’re letting too much Other into your body.”

“Just… rest… I just need to rest,” Eren murmured. “I can’t do anything… I’m so tired and everyone is dead…”

“You are making no sense! Most of Shinganshina was saved because of you!”

“I think you need to back up, blondie. He really wasn’t this bad until you started getting all touchy-feely with each other,” he stayed at a reasonable distance from the two, but the impulse to move Eren away from the draega was making his fingertips twitch. “Can this egression shit hurt him if he’s like this for too long?” _Why does he feel like he needed to defend those people?_

“I have no idea, I’ve never seen anyone with a case this bad before,” Armin murmured. “I’ll… can you…” _I hate to ask him to do anything for me… or to entrust Eren to him…_ his lustrous blue eyes searched the thief’s face. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Levi. What do you need me to do?” The fact that this mage was entrusting him with even the smallest responsibility was a refreshing change of pace from being held at a suspicious metaphorical arm’s length.

“Levi, then, I’m going to see if I have something that will put him to sleep or perhaps at least allow him to rest. Will you keep an eye on him? You might need to come over here and catch him, he’s leaning pretty heavily into my hands.”

“You don’t even need to ask. There’s nothing else to amuse me in here, may as well help this useless asshole,” he said as he moved closer to the dragon, kneeling behind him in case the other decided to flop backwards. Staring into Armin’s odd, changing eyes, he issued a wordless challenge. _You can trust me with him._

“Okay, I’ll be back soon,” Armin released his friend and Eren slumped back into Levi’s chest, eyes shuttering closed. The blonde turned, half tied hair whipping as he ran off up the stairs.

Eren’s unfocused eyes opened once more, looking up at Levi almost affectionately; like a cat who’d been given too much catnip, but they became possessive when they landed on the necklace dangling just above his face. _Mine._

Placing a hand lightly over Eren’s eyes, Levi let a small grin grace his lips. “You’re not getting the damn thing back, brat, just deal with it,” he teased. “Are you feeling better now that Armin’s out of the room?” _He’s high as all fuck right now, would it matter if I…?_ With that thought, Levi began running his fingers through the unruly brown strands, unconsciously hoping that he’d get a purr in response.

“Hmmm…” he closed his eyes again under the cool touch of his fingers. Not much of a response but at least he wasn’t spouting nonsense.

“You going to take a nap? Because if you’re going to fall asleep I’m sure as hell at least going to have a wall to lean against,” Eren hummed but didn’t budge as his human pillow attempted to wriggle towards the back of the cell. “Come on, scoot your fat ass backwards,” Levi chastised. When that didn’t seem to work, he gave an irritated grunt and slipped his arms under the brunette’s form, lifting him up before standing and moving to the back of the room. Positioning Eren against his chest so that the dragon could lean his head on his sternum, the black-haired criminal looped his arms around his waist to keep him mostly upright and made himself comfortable.

* * *

Armin hurried up the stairs to his chambers, wincing as the bandages on his fingers caught on the dilapidated wooden railings, he knew he had something for Eren; at least he thought he might. Some kind of tea or relaxing herbal rub… druidin practices certainly weren’t his forte but he’d learned a little from a court paladin a few years before. It was good to have knowledge of the druid practices, expanding your understanding was important in Armin’s line of work.

It was with these musings fresh in his head that he pushed the heavy doors open to soft murmurings and the sound of fabric rustling together.

“Jean, Erwin is going to come back,” it was Marco’s voice speaking and the sound of it almost made Armin ill. _You’d think I’d foresee this sort of thing._

“Not for a while, he’s gone to meet with that crazy alchemist,” Jean murmured back and from what Armin could see managed to slide his fingers up beneath the rumpled fabric of his subordinate’s shirt. He cringed against the wood of the door but he couldn’t take one eye off them; imagining for a moment he was in his best friend’s place. That Jean’s mouth was on his, that it was their breath mingling together over weaving tongues as hasty hands found their way to the edge of their--

“Armin!” Marco said his name so sharply it knocked him off his feet and he had to grab the door for support, slamming it shut on his hand. “Armin are you okay!?”

“Y-Yes I’m fine!” Armin was fairly certain his fingers were broken; not that he didn’t deserve it for being a shameless voyeur. “I’m fine! I just didn’t--I uhm didn’t mean to--fuck…” he pushed the door open and watched his hand tremble from the break. “I-I just came for some t-tea and I-- by the gods I am…” He hadn’t even looked up yet, face hot beneath the bangs that were now clinging to the glaze of sweat on his brow.

“Armin,” a calm voice said and his head snapped up. “Marco go get some ice from one of the wyverns.”

“N-No! I can get it myself, I need to get this tea down to Eren,” he wanted to look anywhere but the golden eyes that were holding him prisoner as he heard Marco righting his clothes and clipping his harness back into place.

“It won’t take me long,” Marco lingered for just a moment, glancing between them, before rappelling out the window and swinging towards the wyvern stable.

“Come here.”

“Jean I--”

“I’m glad I found you both, it’s time we saw to the dragon and his rider,” a third voice had joined and Armin’s eyes shuttered closed against the pain in his fingers that threatened to make his stomach turn.

“Commander Erwin Armin’s b--”

“No it’s fine, Commander I visited Eren a few moments ago and he’s suffering a few aftereffects from the battle, nothing too serious but he should be left alone for a little while before he’s ready to answer questions; but the thief’s name is _Levi_ or at least he claims it is,” Armin turned to face the taller blonde.

“Armin damn it your hand!”

“I will fix it myself!” Armin responded angrily. “I won’t have this conversation with you!” _Don’t be cruel to him._

“What happened?” Erwin’s face turned concerned and it was his powerful hand that was gripping Armin’s wrist and examining his fingers. “Kirchstein, go get one of the paladins or Hanji.”

“Marco’s already gone to get ice,” Jean replied. “But I’ll go grab Sasha and see if she can help,” he glanced at the draega once more, face concerned, before hurrying out the door.

“Gods it’s only broken fingers you all act like I’ve lost an arm,” Armin frowned.

“You’re an important part of our brigade, never forget that,” Erwin told him gently and with all the weight and care of the world forced him into a chair. “What happened?”

“I just… slipped and shut the door on myself,” Armin watched him seat himself, his hand still careful on Armin's wrist. “Commander, really, it’s something I can fix with a simple spell.”

“But you haven’t, have you, your fingers are still bleeding.”

“I--” Armin cursed Erwin’s intelligence, the way his knowing blue eyes searched his face, the way his jaw twitched against the serious line of his lips. He hated him almost more than the stupid bolo tie around his collar that continued to taunt him as a form of inane torture.

“That battle was more than anyone could handle, I don’t blame you for being exhausted, but don’t think you need to hide it in front of those of us who respect and care for you,” Erwin told him and all Armin could think about was how the bands of his harness cut into his thighs. _Why are his legs so big? He’s like a giant._ He looked up and found an arched eyebrow.

“I was thinking that you’re very tall,” Armin said matter-of-factly. _And that your biceps are the size of my head. I wonder if I’m still feeling a bit of egression?_ The color of the room seemed to indicate that he _was_ a little potted. _From contact with Eren?_

Erwin’s eyes sparkled with amusement and Armin had the sudden urge to slap him across the face with his bolo tie, “Are you irritated with me?”

“No, sir, of course not, I’m just upset at this whole situation. And confused, honestly,” Armin admitted under his steeled gaze. _I’m upset with your stupid tie._ “And I think I’m feeling the effects of the battle a little more after coming in contact with Eren.”

“One day, when you’re less angry with my tie I’d like you to tell me about your history with Eren,” Armin looked up at him blankly.

“What tie, sir?”

“You just said you’re upset with my _stupid_ tie,” Erwin emphasized and Armin blinked again.

“Did I say that _out loud_?”

“Yes but it wasn’t hard to guess, you were staring it down after all…” Erwin looked up when Marco returned with the ice, Armin focused on the angles of his jaw and the shape of his cheekbone. He didn’t feel like taking his eyes off his face even as Jean returned with the paladin to reset his fingers. _I didn’t get Eren tea._

* * *

Historia balanced on the back of the dusky gray-blue wyvern, arms looped comfortably about Ymir’s waist as the two flew above the wreckage that stood in the place of a decent portion of what was once a relatively large town on the southernmost border of the Maria district. The petite blonde was horrified with the destruction that the dragons had caused; even from this distance she caught occasional glimpses of charred corpses and blood spatters that dotted the landscape of collapsed buildings and piles of still smouldering coals.

Wrapping the green cloak that billowed out from her shoulders more tightly about herself, Historia steeled her resolve to join the military. Her people were being massacred by these beasts of legend, and she was not about to stand idly by to watch it happen again.

“On the bright side, only part of the town went up in flames. It seems that they have it controlled, now, so the rest of the buildings should be safe enough.”

“That’s not a bright side, Ymir! There’s still how many people that’ve been killed, and how many more displaced? We’re going to have an emigration problem on our hands…” Historia was silent for a moment before speaking up again. “I’m joining the cavalry. If you want to leave to keep things running smoothly back home then I’m not going to stop you, but I’m going to help with my own two hands.”

Ymir was quiet for a moment, sighing heavily as her wyvern swooped low towards the burned out wreckage, “I will go with you.” She looked over her shoulder at her Queen, understanding her concerns and perhaps recklessly allowing her to put herself in harm’s way, “But you won’t be able to use your real name and we’ll need to enlist you somewhere that isn’t near the Sina district. Perhaps even here within Maria or Rose.”

”Are there troops from Maria stationed here in Shiganshina? I’d like to be in one of the sections that’s closest to the damage. That’s assuming that the dragons strike in a similar location, but…” Her eyes sparkled with determination and happiness. “I’ll take the name Krista Renz. That’s different enough, right?”

“I doubt anyone will recognize you anyway, my lady,” Ymir said drily. “And yes I think that name will do, against my better judgement.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from "Walla Walla" by The Offspring.
> 
>  
> 
> **Just know that we weren't at all listening to this while writing. It just seemed fitting. Heh.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Musical dragon is played. Levi and Erwin make a deal. KITTENS!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **thingsishouldntbedoing:** Hello and welcome back to the fabulous collaboration between myself and the fabulous Windie! Sorry it took us two weeks to update this it won't happen again we hope.
> 
>  **windwolf0097:** I love kittens a whole lot.
> 
>  **tumblr:** thingsishouldntbedoing; windwolf0097
> 
>  **tracking:** fic: the silk of a soul

Armin’s eyes fluttered open, looking around curiously to find that he’d been laid out on the velvet fainting couch in his office, more often it was used for meditation or just as a place for him to rest and read but it seemed it was now a bed. A warm, clean scent reached his nostrils as he lifted a hand to lazily pull his blanket over himself. _Not a blanket_ , his brain told him when his fingers met the rough fabric of a uniform jacket collar. _Pain_ was the next thought as the movement of his fingers finally reached his groggy neuroreceptors.  
  
“Good morning,” a smooth, deep voice greeted him.  
  
“C-Commander!” He recognized the comfortable scent now, cheeks flushing just slightly as he tried to push himself up on his elbows; arms aching.  
  
“Don’t bother yourself, rest,” a large, warm hand met his shoulder. Erwin still looked as tousled as he had the night before, windswept and tireless, but his white collar was open now beneath his loosened tie.  
  
“You… have you been here all night?” Armin’s voice was meek in the empty study.  
  
“Jean was here for a while and so was Marco,” he replied and leaned back in the armchair he had pulled up beside where Armin rested. “We didn’t want to move you.”  
  
“Oh…” He could hardly remember anything from the night before. Something about a bolo tie and Eren and _Levi._ “The thief!”  
  
“Yes I know you told me last night,” he spoke as if he’d read his mind. “He’s safe in the care of our trustworthy guards.”  
  
“Commander?” A soft voice interrupted them and Armin sat up in a hurry, Erwin’s jacket clinging to his shoulders. “Sorry I brought the tea… hi, Armin.” Marco smiled warmly as he walked over. “Are you feeling better?” He took in the creases on the side of his face, the way his blonde hair had pulled free of its binding, the sleepy look that still clung to his luminous eyes. “I think you might need a little more sleep?”  
  
“I’ll be alright, thank you,” Armin smiled tiredly and reached to accept the teacup and saucer he was offered with his broken hand.  
  
“Ah--”  
  
“Don’t worry I’ll hold it in my palm, that part doesn’t hurt,” Armin consoled. “I’m sorry about all this fuss,” he shifted so Marco could sit next to him on the couch.  
  
“It’s fuss over you so it’s okay,” Marco wrapped his arm around his shoulders and Armin caught another rush of Erwin’s scent.  
  
“Well it certainly isn’t, there are things we could have been doing last night other than whatever it was that happened,” Armin chuckled. _I saw you with Jean._ He searched his friend’s face. _As if I didn’t know._  
  
“If it eases your worries the casualty list is fairly short this time,” Erwin drummed his fingers on his thigh.  
  
“Yeah and the rains overnight put out all the fires. The damage assessment happened last night and it seems that Eren kept those other dragons from doing much more. The High Queen will likely donate to the restoration efforts.”  
  
“But we can’t stay here. The city has to be evacuated,” Armin murmured.  
  
“I thought the same thing, remove the people along the borders,” Erwin nodded in response, drinking his tea. “Need coffee, isn’t there any left?”  
  
“Just tea, I’m afraid…” Marco said apologetically. “Why should we move?”  
  
“Not us. The civilians. We need a wider space to mark for a dragon attack,” Armin looked up as the study door opened. _Oh…_ Jean walked in almost cautiously and slid his fingers along the edge of the desk. _Why now?_

“As expected there are hordes of new recruits outside, Commander,” Jean saluted, fist to his heart.

“Scared into service,” Marco murmured. “That’s sad.”  
  
“Or perhaps brave enough to realize we’ll be needing more troops,” Erwin rose.

“You should get some rest, Commander,” Armin told him. He looked surprised when he reached for him, leathery palm brushing his cheek, and Armin almost leaned into his touch; misunderstanding. “Oh,” the hand caught his jacket on his shoulders and Armin’s stomach fluttered. _What the fuck was I thinking?_ He found the young leader’s eyes playful when he managed to look up, flushing in shame.  
  
“I’ll rest later, tidy up we have a dragon and a rider to interrogate,” this time his hand really did touch Armin’s face on purpose, thumb brushing his cheekbone.  
  
Jean cleared his throat, “Commander?”  
  
“Coming, coming,” he said pleasantly and left Armin in his wake with butterflies and anxious bile in his throat.  
  
“About last night…”  
  
“Marco it’s fine,” Armin murmured. He was too distracted with the thumping of his heart to deal with whatever his friend had to say. “I didn’t mean to walk in on you… you’d just survived a major battle I understand…”  
  
“It’s just that--”  
  
“Marco I said it’s fine okay?” Armin gripped his knee. “It was just a surprise.”  
  
“I know how you--”  
  
“Well I should find the Commander some coffee,” Armin rose sharply, immediately regretting it. “I’ll see you later, Marco, okay? Usual time?”  
  
“Y-Yes…” Marco watched the draega go, tracing the lip of his teacup. _I don’t know what to do about all this._ “I’d give him to you if I could, Armin,” he closed his eyes and said to no one in particular. _Just so you wouldn’t be hurt like this._

* * *

Eren woke quite suddenly with the sound of a twittering bird outside their barred window, lashes fluttering as he felt someone nuzzle against the nape of his neck. There was a rough hand tucked up beneath his tunic and strumming lazily against his solar plexus as he blinked his groggy eyes, suddenly aware that someone was curled against his back and that his pillow of choice was a hard bicep. _What?_

Levi, still mostly asleep himself, mumbled with discontent as the form he was holding possessively to his chest began to move. He snuggled closer, shying away from the cold bricks behind him in favor of the furnace-like heat provided by the dragon. Over the other sensations he was feeling, the black-haired man detected a faint scent of charcoal, much like the smell that filled the autumn air as families lit their fireplaces. It was comfortable, homey almost.  
  
“Hnng?” The noise Eren made rumbled in his chest, lifting his head and looking around blearily. He almost didn’t want to move, the hand on his abdomen was comfortable and the breath on his neck was damp and lulling and for the longest time he just lay there; too tired to move. _Who is clinging to me anyway?_ He wondered and peered over his shoulder curiously.

Deep blue eyes, almost grey in the dim lighting, were staring back at him. Somehow narrowed even more than usual, they held turquoise irises in a half-conscious smoulder before blinking owlishly.

“Mph?”  
  
“THIEF!” Eren leapt up from where he was laying and found himself bound by the ankle to a long chain. “Where is my thing!” He was certainly more coherent when he wasn’t egressed.

“Ugh, you’re fuckin’ noisy. Go back to sleep,” Levi grumbled, curling into the still-warm space where Eren had been moments before. He was entirely awake; a life of hunting and being hunted had made it impossible for him to sleep when he was in close quarters with someone even mildly threatening, but the comfort that tugged at the edges of his mind was enough to let him ignore the rampaging brunette sharing the cell.  “I shoved it up my ass, still want it back?”

“Give me,” Eren descended on him, pulling at his clothes to try and find his jewel. “It’s mine!”

“Hey, hey, I don’t undress on the first date, get your hands off me,” the thief hissed, grabbing the dragon by both wrists and glaring at him. “Why do you want it back so badly?” There was sincerity to the question, Levi wondering at the dracon’s strange dispositions.  
  
“It’s mine,” the boy told him angrily, struggling against his grip. “You can’t just take things that belong to me!”

“I’m a _thief_ , numbnuts. Bandit? Rogue? It’s in the job description, get over it,” he glowered, holding tighter against Eren’s jerking movements. _Goddamn, this little shit is annoying. I can’t even hit him, my hands are full. I’m going to bite him._  
  
Eren squeezed his thighs around his waist, eyes glinting as he spotted the silver chain around his neck, reaching desperately against his powerful arms. _Mine…_ he snarled, pushing down on Levi’s hips with his butt to lean down and pick up more leverage against him. _It’s mine!_  
  
“Are we interrupting something?” A deep voice reverberated against the stone walls and the combatants stopped cold.

“If you must know, I was debating biting him,” Levi snarked, shoving Eren unceremoniously to the floor.  
  
“He didn’t need to know that,” there was another blonde behind him, slender and pressed beneath his harness in comparison to the Commander’s broad form. “Eren you’re--”  
  
“Armin!” The dragon’s face sank quite suddenly as he hurried to the bars.  
  
“Yes,” he reached out to touch Eren’s hand with his bandaged and splinted fingers, blue eyes soft. “It’s good to see you’re feeling better, you weren’t well last night…”  
  
“You’re hurt,” the dragon’s words curled off his tongue like butter, the distinct flavor of honey and mint spilling into the room; thick and warm. They wove their way through the air, wrapping around Armin’s injured hands and resetting bones and mending flesh in a way only a dragon’s magic could. 

“Good to see that I’m important. Absolutely fucking vital to these interactions, yep,” Levi said from his position on the floor. Standing and brushing himself off, he looked at the expression of awe that had settled onto the two blondes’ faces, and the vague self-satisfaction that surrounded the dragon. “What did I miss?” The heavy aura of healing still hung in the room, but he’d long since brushed off strange sensations as a ‘huge damn lizard’ thing.

“Dragon magic…” Armin whispered low, drawing his fingers back as Erwin looked on with a strange glint in his eyes. “Eren…”  
  
“I thought…  I could help so…” Eren rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry you got hurt…” his brows wrinkled.  
  
“It’s fine,” Armin whispered as he unwrapped his hands to look at them.  
  
“This is certainly a meeting of good fortune,” the Commander’s unreadable gaze had found Levi. “Armin tells me your name is _Levi_. Interesting coincidence.”

“Ah yes, what a _coincidence_. Why is that interesting?” He met the towering blonde’s stare easily, defiance and danger emanating from his posture.

“I’ve been looking for a thief named Levi, seems odd that you’d be here and using that name if you weren’t him,” Erwin said pleasantly.  
  
“Looking for little ol’ me? Why would you be doing that?”  
  
“I wonder if you’re stupid or lying?” Erwin’s eyes narrowed. “I suppose you must be stupid if you told us your real name, knowing that we were looking for you, or you’re lying and using that name to make yourself look better… either way you’re still in jail,” he smirked.

“I don’t think it matters what I am, other than ‘in jail,’ does it? I could be the most clever, dashing, upstanding citizen and you’d be more than happy to leave me here to rot I’m sure,” Levi’s face became entirely expressionless, unwilling to rise to the commander’s taunting. 

“Is he doing better, Arlert?” Erwin’s fingers stroked against the line of Armin’s shoulder blade beneath the pressed fabric of his shirt, hand pressing to his back gently. The touch didn’t go unnoticed by Eren, who growled lightly in his chest.

“Y-Yessir,” a tremor went down his spine. It was an innocent touch, one meant to reassure he supposed, but the eyes he knew were watching him made him uncomfortable if only because of what had transpired that morning. “The egression seems to have settled down.”  
  
“Good; guards, bring the thief. It’s time we talked,” Erwin gestured. “What do you want done with the dragon?”  
  
“I…” he searched his friend’s face, iridescent eyes shimmering. “Release him… I will take responsibility for him.”  
  
“If he goes crazy it’ll be your neck on the line,” his Commander’s voice had returned and Armin nodded sharply.  
  
“I’ll make sure to take care of him,” his heart was pounding under Erwin’s steely gaze, wondering just when the Commander had begun to make him nervous.  
  
“Very well, with me,” Erwin said as guards walked into the cell, “Chain his hands.”

Levi took a deep breath, steadying himself. _This is my opportunity. I can get past these guards… But should I risk trying to escape now, while there’s so many high ranking soldiers around?_ Making a decision, he held his wrists out to his captors. “So, you’re going to let a dragon out into the world on blondie’s good word but you’re not willing to release a petty thief? I see, nice equality there.” 

“You’ll take us both?” Eren said, glancing at Levi curiously. “We’ll go together?” He wasn’t about to let his necklace of out his sight. 

“That’s not how it works,” Armin told him gently. “You’re going to come to my office with me and Commander Smith is going to take _Levi_ ,” he said his name as if he didn’t quite believe his was his real name.  
  
“Take him where?”  
  
“To his office? I assume? Not the chamber…” his voice wavered as he looked up.  
  
“No, to the office, you’re correct.”  
  
“Right, just to be questioned… and you won’t have to worry about him anymore,” Armin helped him up. “Are you okay to stand?”  
  
“Yes… I don’t want him out of my sight, he has my thing.”

“I don’t have jack shit,” he shrugged, scratching at his neck under the chain of the necklace seemingly absentmindedly. The only tell that he was doing it to provoke Eren was the mischievous glint in his eyes as he glanced back towards the brunette, following the guards out of the cell with some hesitance.

“Armin! The thing! My thing!” Eren protested, starting after them.  
  
“It’ll be okay he’s not going anywhere,” Armin caught him gingerly. “Come on let’s go to my office so you can relax and maybe shower… you smell like a sewer.”  
  
“Well maybe if they cleaned the cells out down here from time to time,” Eren allowed himself to be pulled off; glancing off towards the retreating backs of Erwin, Levi, and their escorts. _I want it back. Don’t you dare give it to someone else…_

Suddenly down one half-ally, Levi was forced to acknowledge that he was currently bound and headed towards an office for ‘questioning.’ What that entailed, he wasn’t sure, but he was suddenly on edge in a way that spelled danger for anyone who decided to try to attack him. He’d kill them, bound hands or no.

Erwin was quiet except for a few commands as they entered the rather comfortable looking stone office. Of course the superior officer would have an office worthy of a king. The guards left Levi standing there with this tree of a man walking casually to his desk, pouring two cups from a teapot and sliding one across the desk. 

“The window’s locked but you can try and escape if you like, or you could come sit and have a cup of tea with me,” Erwin offered.

“Drown that fucker in sugar and you have a deal,” Levi grumbled, flopping down into the chair across from the commander’s. He was tempted to put his feet up on the desk, to show Erwin just how filthy the cells were, but he settled for leaving his legs spread much wider than was publicly acceptable.  
  
“Sugar? Interesting,” Erwin said everything like it was his own personal secret he’d be storing away for later use. 

“What, can’t you tell from my sweet disposition that I like sugar? Gods, it’s like you’re not allowed to enjoy eating anymore,” Levi wasn’t usually so testy, but everything about this asshole annoyed him. The way he held himself, his dumb hair that looked like a bad toupee, that fucking _bolo tie_.

“Speaking of eating,” Erwin slid a plate towards him with half a loaf of fresh bread, cheese, and a few cold hunks of peppered tenderloin; all of which were utterly _mouthwatering_ in comparison to the offerings below. “I’m sure you haven’t been fed,” he doused the tea with sugar and slid it towards him as well.

“This is a pretty generous amount. You going to share?” The bound thief did his best not to look suspicious, trying to make it seem like an innocent statement. He didn’t think that they’d poison him in such a lavish office, it’d be a shame to make a mess on such an expensive carpet, but his instincts demanded proof of the food’s safety.

“I don’t want you dead, and if I did I wouldn’t be stupid enough to poison you,” Erwin responded, sitting back in his chair and propping his boots up on the table. The questioning hadn’t started yet, his icy blue eyes watching every tiny detail of Levi’s movements.

“Fair enough. Still, indulge me,” Levi prompted, lifting the teacup awkwardly from the top so it didn’t clink against the shackles on his wrists. He waited for Erwin to grab his as well before he took a sip.

Erwin said nothing, picking up his cup with practiced fingers and drinking from it almost ceremoniously. There was something in the grace of his movements, about the brace of his pinkie on the table when he set his cup down so it wouldn’t make noise, about the irritating amount of confidence he exuded that read: _nobility_.

_What a dick._

* * *

Armin drew a bath, delighted that his taps were working once more; glancing over his shoulder at his friend. Eren was eating hungrily, shoving bread and meat and cheese into his mouth as quickly as possible between gulps of clean, fresh water; it was all Eren had requested when asked. Of course the food had been a nice addition that Eren had happily obliged to consume.

"Eren are you ready?" Armin rolled up his sleeves as he walked out, blonde hair pulled back.

"Mmph?" Eren looked up at him, green eyes glinting.

"You stink, I poured you a bath..." Armin had more questions than patience but he wasn't going to press him yet, not without letting him relax.  
  
“You’re not asking me questions… isn’t that what this is about?” Eren stood up and walked over to him.  
  
“I have… questions but…”  
  
“I’m sorry, Armin,” he murmured as he stopped by his shoulder. “That…”  
  
“No I understand!” He waved his hands almost defensively. “No please I… understand why you wouldn’t tell anyone. You would have been killed or…”  
  
“So they’re not going to kill me?” He almost looked hopeful.  
  
“There’s to be a tribunal… to decide what to do with you… I assured them that you were harmless, that you’d never hurt anyone in your life. Commander Erwin seems to believe me…” He let Eren pull his clothes off, leaning against the door frame.  
  
“I didn’t… want anyone to get hurt…” Eren stopped at the tub, gripping the edge of it with his dirty hands. “I… never meant…” his tanned shoulders trembled. “I-I never wanted…”  
  
“Eren… none of this is your fault!” Armin peeled himself off the wall and walked over to him. “Come on, get in the water,” he pressed.  
  
“Armin I…” he shook his head.  
  
“Get in the water,” he said it a little more forcefully and the dragon scrambled into the hot bath; groaning at the feeling. “See? That feels better right?”  
  
“All I ever wanted was a friend…” Eren murmured with his eyes closed.  
  
“What?”  
  
“You were so curious and… I thought if I used my magic I could…” He hesitated. “I thought maybe…”  
  
“You don’t have… any family do you?” Armin had never thought about that, the strange boy that always showed up to his house when he least expected it. “All along…”  
  
“I went home and changed my form…” Eren murmured and sank further into the water. “I just…”  
  
“Eren…” his chest ached, imagining him going home alone and spending his days _alone_ and unnoticed unless it was Armin himself who spent time with him.  
  
“I’m sorry I lied… I’m sorry all my people died...” He finally vanished beneath the surface, hair like tendrils in the suspension.  
  
“Saints, you really are harmless…” Armin murmured. _But how to explain all this to the tribunal?_

* * *

Levi was enjoying himself now. The food was delicious, the tea was well-brewed, and commander Erwin was- to use the man’s favourite word- _interesting._ Picking snacks off the plate and eating them as neatly as he could considering the bindings on his wrists, he studied Erwin intensely; watching the other’s eyes shift from icy intimidation to tempered curiosity and back, judging the way the muscles in his jaw twitched whenever Levi moved unexpectedly. He was like a hunter watching it's prey, careful and calculated and unreadable.

"How is it?" He asked, unmoving.

“I’m eating it, aren’t I? It’s decent,” Levi responded, tongue swiping any missed crumbs off his lips. He thought back to his other interactions with the commander; few as they were, he knew that Erwin wasn’t someone to be taken lightly. _He even makes his subordinates nervous. Armin or whatever his name is looked like he was going to have a heart attack..._

"So your name is Levi?" He hummed, thumbing at the band on his chest as he finally sat back up. "Tell me, Levi, do you know what it is you've stumbled into?"

“Well it involves dragons, jail cells that smell like death and failure, and your ugly mug so… no, I have no idea. I’m bad at puzzles.”

"Well let's start at the beginning, shall we?" Erwin suggested. "How did you become involved with the dragon?"

“We got in a… physical dispute over whether or not I was trespassing.”

“A physical dispute?” This time there was amusement in his voice as he sipped his tea. “So you were stealing from him?”

“We got in a fight because I was investigating a building that was supposed to be abandoned. Sometimes people move out, leave valuables behind. I was scavenging, not stealing. You’re talking like I knew he was in there.”

“Taking things from the people they belong to _is_ stealing,” Erwin told him.

“Tch, like you’ve never seen a shilling on the street and picked it up. It’s more active than that, but it’s still not like I’m taking some family’s last slice of bread.” 

“So you stole from him and he understandably didn’t like it… then?”

“Fine, fine, yes,” Levi confessed, pulling the necklace out from under his shirt. “Some of my colleagues, who will remain unnamed regardless of what you do to me, told me that there was a decent stash in an abandoned house. I went in, he tried to fight me hand-to-hand, and he lost. There was an enormous roar outside and as he slunk away he sprouted a tail out of I don’t want to know where.”

“So you didn’t see where we went after that?” He asked, fishing for something.

“Uh, it’s kinda hard _not_ to see where he went after that. Hugeass scaly fuckwit flying around and screeching his head off at two other asswads. I jumped onto his back because the city was on fire and I’m not a fan of being on fire.” 

“So it was on fire before you found him?” Erwin mused.

“Yeah, it was. Let’s agree not to build houses out of tinderboxes anymore, shall we?”

His brows flickered in concern, once unreadable face twitching, “And during the battle you were riding him yes?”

“Yeah. Let me tell you, it was one hell of an experience. Fire and growling everywhere, I highly recommend it.”

“Well I am a wyvern rider,” he responded easily, “I have more experience than you in that department I’m sure.” He fell quiet for a moment, tapping his fingers on the table. “You have… talent…” He stood up, “It’s interesting to me, seeing your use of the maneuver gear; illegally obtained of course, and your rather interesting talent for staying on an unsaddled mount mid-battle.”  
  
A snout nuzzled its way into Levi’s lap, blue and green with curled lips like a python and liquid black eyes that looked up at his face. A drake, flightless and worthless, kept as pets by those with the money to afford them or the time to care for them. It seemed to want attention, having scuttled from its place in the corner of the office.

 _Damn it, it’s cute._ Levi glared at it with false annoyance, bopping it lightly on the muzzle before scratching behind where its horns extended from the back of its skull. The creature clicked contentedly, a reptilian version of a purr, and settled further into the short man’s touch. 

“This yours?” He asked, motioning to the drake. 

“No he belongs to our resident draega,” he dismissed. “I only have one more question… why, if you had only just met this dragon, did you bother to risk both your lives instead of turning him in and running?" 

“I was asking myself the same thing,” Levi muttered, no longer observing Erwin the way that he had been throughout their conversation. He was distracted by the drake, petting and scratching at it in different places to see if it would make any other noises. He’d never experienced the dracon before yesterday, and he was almost wonderstruck by the differences between all of them.

“And what answer did you find?” Erwin turned to look at him, folding his arms over his chest.

“I’m actually an idiot, and I have no sense of self preservation,” Levi grumbled, still trying to figure out the answer himself. “I didn’t know what you would do to him, and I wanted to play the hero for once.”

“For the sake of my mage I’d rather not let him be killed,” he folded his hands behind his back. “So it will be you that speaks before the tribunal and in exchange you will be allowed to live; serving the Recon Corps as a wyvern rider until the end of your sentence. If you don’t agree you will be jailed, tried, and killed.”

“Doesn’t seem like I’ve got much of a choice then, does it? I’ll join you and your pack of flying assholes. I’ll even try to keep the brat alive at the trial.”

“I think you’d rather him alive anyway,” Erwin leaned on the table over him. “Or am I wrong to think that you’ve formed a camaraderie with him?" 

“Well, I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him; however much I trust him, I trust you less.”

“Smart man,” he said pleasantly. “I’ll have a guard escort you back to your cell.”

“Fuck no. You can have me if you want me but I want a goddamn suite.”

“Suite?” He echoed, a smile flashing across his face. “Making demands now?”

“You bet your ass I am. You want that dragon alive, I know you do, and the testimony is all on me. I want a suite.”

“To trust a thief… how stupid do you think I am?”

“I don’t think you’re stupid, I think you have no other choice.”

“My choice is to give you a suite or throw you in jail and make you testify anyway, as if you’d allow yourself to die for a nice room,” he caught his jaw in his fingers. 

“I’ve risked my life for less.”

“Fine, you would like an upgraded suite?” There was something playful about the way his voice lifted. “I can oblige you.”

* * *

Armin sighed, sitting across from a dry and clean Eren, puppy-eyed and much more interested in talking now that Armin was watching him thoughtfully. The blonde sat with one knee crossed over the other, fist bracing his face and elbow on the table, it was a relaxed position but even with his nonverbals screaming comfort there was something in his _eyes_ that made Eren uncomfortable.

  
“Well?” He fiddled with his borrowed tunic, folding his legs into the chair. “What do you want?” His long hair hung in damp tendrils, bright turquoise eyes shining beneath the dark curtain.  
  
“I want… answers… I don’t even know where to begin Eren… What happened out there? Where did they… come from?”  
  
“I don’t know I didn’t know there were others like me…” he murmured. “I always thought I was the last one left.”  
  
“So you knew you were a dragon… of course you knew you were a dragon what in the hells am I saying? Gods Eren I don’t…” He stood up and walked around the table, running long fingers through the blonde strands of his hair. “How old are you?” He murmured after a moment. “If y--” he yelped at the slamming of the door against the wall.  
  
“Ah sorry to startle you, I have a guest,” Erwin smiled pleasantly. “Door swings a little too easily…” he muttered.  
  
Armin felt his heart leap into his throat, torn between the terrified adrenaline now pulsing through his veins and remembering just how gentle his powerful fingers had been on his wrist the night before.

“Thief…” Eren looked up and over, pupils dilating at Erwin’s company, standing up from his chair.

“I’ve got a name, you know,” Levi grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Why am I here, again?” He asked, turning slightly towards Erwin. _This is certainly not the dungeon… but it’s also not a suite._

“You’re here--”  
  
“To be babysat! I am not a babysitter,” Armin protested. “I have enough on my hands, Commander.”  
  
“What’s one more? Eren won’t let him out of his sight as long as he has what he wants, I don’t think we need to be worrying about him escaping,” Erwin told him. He didn’t seem surprised that Armin was arguing with him. Then again did anything surprise him?

“I don’t need a babysitter. I’m old enough to be his dad,” Levi said, motioning towards Armin. “You’re like… twelve, right?” 

“Twenty! And that’s mightily impressive if you think I’m actually going to buy into this!” He turned his attention back to Erwin.  
  
“As if you didn’t see it coming,” the response was amused.  
  
“I certainly didn’t think you’d choose _me,_ I have enough on my hands.”  
  
“I’m staking my reputation on you, be careful not to ruin us.”  
  
“I--” Armin hesitated and looked at Eren, who hadn’t moved since Levi had entered the room, then to Levi. “Erwin…”  
  
“And clearly it doesn’t matter what I want. I could literally start singing holiday carols at the top of my lungs and you fucks wouldn’t bat an eye.”

Eren moved towards him, stalking slowly, searching for the glint of silver around his neck.

“Eren!” Armin and Erwin warned in unison, startling the dragon back into attention. “At this moment your opinion matters little to anyone. You are a prisoner and a thief.”  
  
“Nobody’s going to get my thing?”  
  
“Are you really going to do this to me?” Armin asked almost pleadingly to his superior.  
  
“They’re all yours.”  
  
“If you’re not careful, one day you’re going to wake up and find your idiotic bolo tie has come to life and strangled you.”

“You’re going to wake up to find out you’re dead. Very clever, I like it,” Levi snarked. 

“Can you wake up dead?” Eren looked at Armin with a churlish grin and Levi glanced at Eren, an impressed and vaguely affectionate glint in his eyes from the brattish comment.

Erwin merely chuckled at the exchange, arms folded over his chest, “I have recruits to look over. I’m sure you’ll be more than happy here with my draega.”

A strange sensation bubbled up under Armin’s lungs that left him breathless. He hadn’t said anything different from usual, not really, but there was something in his steel gaze that made his insides feel molten. _My_ draega, he’d said. It was possessive and demanding in a way he’d never heard anyone use besides Eren. _My_ friend. _My_ food. _My thing._ It scared him and delighted him at the same time.  
  
“ _My_ draega,” Eren corrected and shifted closer to the slender blonde.  
  
“My _ass_. What are we supposed to do while we’re waiting around?”

“Showering would be admirable,” Erwin replied casually and made his way out of the office.

“Tell me where a washroom with hot water is and I’ll jump right on that.”

“Come this way,” Armin gestured. “I’ll try and find you some clean clothes.” Eren followed them at a distance, not wanting to take his eyes off of Levi for even a _second._

* * *

“Bert!” He jerked his head around at the shout, hand stuffed into his shirt. “Bertholdt what are you doing?” The voice became softer as a broad figure neared.

“Nothing it was just…”  
  
“Bert what have you got?”  
  
“Reiner it was just sitting there,” there was a nervous tremor to his voice. “Just… just sitting there and I thought…”  
  
“We’re not here to collect,” the one called Reiner told him with knitted brows. He was broad and thick, built like a draft horse with an angular face and heavy brows.  
  
“I know…” he murmured. “It’s just…”  
  
“Bert what--” Reiner caught his shoulder and pulled him around, laughing lightly. “Bertholdt,” he said his name fondly as the taller man huddled around his find. “Those are kittens.”  
  
“There’s another one…” He clinked when he moved and Reiner was sure the kittens weren’t the only thing he’d hoarded.  
  
“Where?” Reiner knelt down next to him, leaning heavily on his shoulder.  
  
“Under that beam…” Reiner could hear it mewling, ears pricking against the crumbling houses around them.  
  
“Damn it Bert…” he got down on his hands and knees, searching for the kitten with his hand. “Hnng... I can’t get it.”

Bertholdt cuddled the kittens in his arms closer to himself, gently herding them back into his grasp whenever they tried to escape. “Can you hold up the beam, so I can get it?”

He nodded, glancing to make sure no one was looking, before shoving his shoulder under the foundation beam, “I’m gonna lift it Bert you’ve gotta be quick.” And with a snarl he pressed upwards with all his strength and the once smouldering house groaned under his efforts, lifting off its supports.

Moving quicker than someone of his stature could be expected to, the black-haired male crouched down and scooped up the kitten in one large hand, tucking it with the others and standing back up so that his companion could set down the heavy beam.

Reiner grunted under the effort, taking a moment to recover, before standing up to look at him. “What do you plan to do with those?”

“Well, uhm,” he said, scratching at the back of his neck, “I was going to keep them.”

“Of course you were going to keep them, we have to go enlist we don’t have time for kittens…”

“They can live in the barracks with us, can’t they?”

“And just how do you plan to explain that to your superior officer? And don’t look at me like that every time you want something you look at me with those big brown cow eyes of yours and I _melt_ and I’m not doing it this time. There’s seven of them Bertholdt.” 

“Well, cats are good mouse hunters, I mean… they could be there to pest hunt. And so what if there’s seven? They’re mine,” He mumbled, nuzzling into his collection of kittens.

“You know what we came here to do, Bert,” he told him softly and caught his fingers in his hair. “We can’t be fooling around with these…”  
  
“Hey! What are you two doing?” A sharp voice cut the air. “I’m leaving you behind.”  
  
“Annie,” Reiner frowned. “You know he--”  
  
“I don’t care, I’ve been trying to find you and here you are; rummaging around in trash.”  
  
“Not trash, kittens,” Bertholdt whined.

“Alright come on we need to go… just bring them…” Reiner muttered and grabbed him by the arm, helping him up. _It’s not like we can take them away from him._

“What else did you take?” Annie asked.  
  
“ _Nothing,_ ” Bertholdt protested.  
  
“I’m going ahead, I don’t want to arrive with you,” Annie told them. “It’s safer that way.”  
  
“Okay, we’ll see you there,” Reiner muttered without a hint of affection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from "One Day Robots Will Cry" by Cobra Starship.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lead-up to the tribunal wherein: Eren reveals part of his past, Levi learns more about dragons, and Armin spends a lot of this time really confused about things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **thingsishouldntbedoing:** Hey guys sorry about the long wait! We lost a little steam for a bit but we're back in action for biweekly updates. If we can we may update another chapter here in the near future just to catch up! But we'll see. If not then we'll see you again in two weeks!
> 
>  **WindWolf0097:** I would really like to touch lava. Morgan says it looks cuddly.

The next few days were filled with a flurry of activity. A host of new trainees were brought in from the edges of the cities which left the military’s numbers tight in response to the influx, Armin and Erwin spent hours with their heads bent together over books and maps in the library while Eren watched, perched on the bookshelves to stay as far away from Levi as possible without losing sight of him.  
  
“Is he still up there?” Erwin muttered, leaning on his elbow on the table, and Armin had to lean just slightly to see around the broad width of his shoulders.  
  
“Yeah he is…” Armin could see where the catlike figure was sprawled along the top of the shelf, one arm trailing lazily along the spines of the volumes supporting his weight… but the draega knew better. Eren may have looked relaxed but his spine was as tight as a bowstring, glistening green eyes peering over the fold of his elbow-- never letting Levi leave his sight.  
  
“Dragons are rather feline aren’t they?” Erwin glanced at Levi next, as if he were going to go anywhere under the eye of a dragon. He felt rather pleased with himself for thinking of this little set up. Levi couldn’t go anywhere because Erwin had made sure to let him keep the necklace. Levi’s greed compounded beneath the greed of the dragon he stole from kept them both close at hand. No need for shackles. But the next time the commander’s eyes landed on the thief, he found himself being studied as well.

“Don’t look so damn proud of yourself, bastard. If I escaped, you’d lose the brat too. The shit eating smirk isn’t a good look on you.”  
  
“It’s been snowing for three days, you think there’s any chance of a tactical retreat without a wyvern or a maneuver gear?” Erwin hummed. “The snow’s almost as tall as you are,” Armin looked between them before smiling down at the book in front of him, twisting his finger at the pen that was carefully tracing out the faded lines of an ancient map and pulling it towards him to mark something of importance.  
  
“It’s cute how much you underestimate me, it really is,” Levi murmured to himself before continuing, louder “I’m not sensitive about my height, if you’re trying to figure out what annoys me.” 

The clattering of a book alerted them all, Eren looking down at them as if irritated, “What’s wrong?” Armin asked curiously.  
  
“Nothing,” Eren settled backed down into his doze, “I just wanted you to have that book.”  
  
“So you knocked it down?” Armin arched an eyebrow. 

“I didn’t want to get down, sorry,” Eren looked a little scolded and nestled his face into his elbow once more.

“Well now you have to get down to pick up the book, since none of us are going to get it,” Levi commented offhandedly, leaning back in his seat. 

“It’s fine,” Armin gestured and the book righted itself, soaring over into his hands. “Eren why do I need this?”  
  
“Dragon rituals,” he replied complacently. “The last tribunal I attended--”  
  
“How old were you during The Great War?” Erwin interrupted. “You must have been born before the dragons were extinguished, yes?”  
  
“How many years ago… was that?” Eren lifted his head, almost shamefully curious.  
  
“You don’t know?” Erwin frowned.  
  
“When you are very old… time means little,” Eren murmured. “I was a hatchling when the War began I think. When the humans first rebelled…”  
  
“That’s… centuries,” Armin flipped through the pages of one of his texts. “The Great War began nearly 500 years ago, Eren.”  
  
“Did it?” He murmured, his eyes sank to the creases of fabric in his elbow. “My that is a long time…” he sighed softly and curled up once more.  
  
“Yes it… lasted for nearly a century before the draega--”  
  
“Turned against us,” Eren finished.  
  
“T-Turned against you…” There was a distinct hesitance about Armin’s voice, fingers stilling on the wrinkled pages of his text. As if he wanted to say more; but how did one console a centuries old dragon?  
  
“Well the dragons deserved it, cruel overlords who murdered people for enjoyment and treated them as slaves,” Erwin frowned; he wondered if he could get a rise out of him. He wanted to test him, see what would happen at the trial. He wasn’t about to go in blind to this dragon’s reactions.  
  
Levi tensed, a snappish response at the tip of his tongue, but the cogs working in his mind caught on a piece of missing information. Armin seemed apologetic, implying that the massacre of the dragons was an extreme that he did not agree with. Erwin, on the other hand, held a much more violent take on the situation. He tried to draw a connection to the pieces of the tales he knew, snippets of history that he’d heard parents telling their children as bedtime stories while he robbed them blind. He didn’t know enough about the past, wasn’t educated enough to lash out against Erwin’s statement, so he sat bristling with a defensive sort of irritation rather than speaking up for his draconic companion. Knowing Eren he’d speak up for himself, anyway.

“Perhaps they did,” Eren’s quiet voice came muffled through his arms. “I grow tired of these questions.”  
  
Erwin’s face betrayed no surprise for his answer except for the flicker in his blue eyes and the ever so slight tense of his shoulders. Armin watched them both carefully before looking to Levi, “You’ve been quiet. Is there anything you need to know before the tribunal?” 

“What do you want me to say? You’ll have to educate me on the finer points of being an ‘abandoned-dracon-adopters’ spokesperson if you want it to come out all refined and publicly acceptable.” 

“I wasn’t abandoned and you did not adopt me,” Eren told him sharply.  
  
“Eren!” Armin scolded him and he huffed lightly before turning his back to them. “I’m not sure exactly what you want me to explain. Dragons are complicated creatures and even I only know a little. And that is from old memories and books.”

“You could start with the most important bits about them, just in case I’m missing anything,” Levi bluffed. “Also anything that might not be common knowledge, if they ask any specific questions I’d like to give them a decent response.” 

“Well for the most part if there are any specifics it is likely the Justice will defer to Armin,” Erwin had remained quiet, leaning back in his chair with his fingers laced over his lap. He seemed to be watching Eren, as if learning his movements. “So there’s no need to go into details.”  
  
“Really the only thing you need to worry about is explaining exactly what happened that night without it sounding like we coached you,” Armin filed a few papers together, tapping them evenly on the table. “Dragons are finicky creatures, they prefer to live alone but will take in wyverns and humans for company. They are also highly territorial and possessive, greed is their major identifier, they are known to collect things even of little importance just to have it.”

Levi fiddled with the chain around his neck as Armin mentioned dragons being hoarders. The interactions between Eren and the blonde in the cell made more sense now; he understood why the dragon would consider the people of Shiganshina ‘his.’ But if dragons were as cruel as Erwin made them out to be… why would he risk his life to save them?

Eren snorted, an action that may have created an impressive blast of superheated air in his dragon form but only served as an expression of annoyance as he was. “All my things are important,” he grumbled as he glared at Levi. There was an unspoken _I want my thing back_ in his eyes, and the black-haired man taunted him with an overly innocent shrug.

Clearing his throat, Armin regained Levi’s attention. “Do you think you can do that?”

“Of course I can. If I don’t have to worry about anything but what I already knew it shouldn’t be a problem,” Levi folded one leg over the other, leaning against his fist.

“All you need to do is confirm that Eren wasn’t one of the dragons who destroyed the city. And that you know he isn’t violent, their trust for me goes only so far…”  
  
“What do I do during all this?” Eren asked softly.  
  
“Remain quiet and don’t lose your temper,” there was a touch of finality in Erwin’s voice as he stood. “Armin I’ll leave them to you, I need to see to--”  
  
“It’s fine, Commander, I understand.” For a moment something seemed to pass between them. A silent conversation that hung in the air like silver strings of a fresh web, flickering and quickening with each movement of the air between them.  
  
“Commander!” A salute stole his attention and Eren lifted his head to look towards the door. “We’ve settled the recruits down for now, they’ll remain on standby until after the trial,” Jean said, eyes on Armin. They hadn’t spoken much, not since the morning after Armin had broken his fingers but Marco had been in and out of the library, reporting to Jean on Armin and Erwin’s movements. _I wonder why he’s avoiding me?_

“Make sure they are properly outfitted. You can begin running drills with them at least, whip them into shape, Jean,” Erwin pulled his jacket on and walked towards his subordinate. “I will see you three at the trial,” his eyes fell on Levi as Jean turned to open the door for him.

“Yes, of course,” Armin agreed, watching the sharp lines of Jean’s jaw in relief to the dim hallway light, falling back into his old thoughts once more. The thoughts that devoured him, that drowned him in jealousy and fed into a rage that was slowly eroding his friendships. Erwin crossed his line of vision, however, and shattered his concentration with a look-- one of curiosity and kindness and his own cocktail of facial tics meant to hide his real thoughts-- and somehow it was effective. Armin felt startled, as if someone had slapped him, looking away.  
  
“Armin, Marco wanted me to ask if you’re coming down to dinner later?” Jean asked, lingering in the doorway.  
  
“No I need to stay here, but you can tell him he doesn’t have to bring it up. I’ll have someone else bring us dinner,” Armin responded without looking.  
  
“Sure,” Jean glanced up at Eren, as if the dragon might give him some answer as to what was happening, but only earned the quirk of Eren’s lips. _Little shit._ The door shut with finality, leaving Armin leaning over his books as if exhausted.

 

* * *

 

Armin leaned against the wall near the doorway with his arms folded over his chest like an overprotective father. The side room to the library had once been a storage room but had been repurposed into an odd sort of holding cell for the dragon and his companion. Eren sat on his bed, face impassive for the moment, he had seemed lost in thought almost the entire day-- eyes faraway as he looked up and out the window.  
  
“If I leave you both in here will you promise not to slaughter each other?” Armin asked, “I know it’s cold again tonight but I brought extra blankets.”

“Considering that testifying for him is the only reason I’m not rotting in a cell and on my way to the guillotine, I figure I can manage,” Levi fastened his night shirt as he answered. 

“I’m glad you seem to be accepting your fate,” Armin wasn’t sure if he should smile or scowl and settled for chuckling into his hand.

“Good to see someone has a sense of humor around here. You could learn a thing or two from pretty-boy, Eren,” Levi said, claiming most of the extra blankets for himself. If that ass was going to take the bed he’d at least have enough coverage to avoid freezing. “...Eren?” It was unlike the behavior that Levi had seen so far for the dragon to ignore such a direct jab.  
  
“Hmm?” He looked over with interest in his eyes, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. “Is everything alright?”  
  
“Yeah, don’t watch the stars for too long, okay? I don’t want you to be tired tomorrow,” Armin told him and ruffled Eren’s hair, carding his fingers through the soft brown strands. “Eren did you hear me?”  
  
“Yeah, I’ll go to sleep early I promise,” he looked up at him. “Good night, Armin.”  
  
“Stupid,” Armin said affectionately and pat his cheek before heading to the door, unbuttoning his shirtsleeves and rolling them up. “Don’t bother each other, I’ll hear you if you do,” he scolded before shutting the door behind him.  
  
As soon as he was gone Eren scaled the stone wall of the room like a lizard, wedging fingers and toes into the cracks between the rocks until he had perched on the window sill a few yards above his bed.

“The fuck are you doing up there?” Levi asked, utterly confused by Eren’s actions. _Does this have to do with watching the stars? Why are stars so interesting?_

“On clear nights… if you watch… you can see the Silk in the air…” Eren replied.

“Uh, the aurora? I don’t see why that has all your attention. You’ve had five hundred years to see it, apparently, don’t the colors get boring?”

“Every night the Silk’s power aligns just right, preparing the world for its renewal the next morning,” Eren said. “Those colors are just parts of the magic that it uses… just like the magic dragons use.”

“Can you explain that? I’m not a dragon, I don’t know how any of this shit works. Kinda got thrown face first into the whole business,” Levi took his chance to sit on the bed, pulling his blankets around himself. If Eren wasn’t going to take advantage of the warmth of the mattress, he certainly would.  
  
“It’s… difficult to explain,” the dragon twirled his finger in the air, leaving a trail of colors that mingled in the air before vanishing when he ran his hand through the tendrils of astral. “The Silk is the fabric of this world… it binds all life together, ties fates together with its intricate detailing… it’s beyond description in your language… scintillating and flavorful and bright with all the colors imagined and unimagined.”

The dragon’s words flowed over Levi, tinged with centuries-old wonder that resonated with something deep inside him. For the first time he could remember, he yearned for knowledge that wasn’t strictly practical. “So you can read… the fabric of fate? What else is there that I can’t see?”

The dreamy look on his face hardened slightly as he looked down, turquoise eyes luminescent, “There is much humans can’t see and can’t know…”

“Can’t see I get, but can’t _know?_ If you told me I’d know, I don’t understand,” frustration seeped into his voice as he growled out the end. “How is anyone supposed to learn anything if you’re not willing to teach them? Birds can fly and fish can breathe underwater. Humans can’t do either but we understand how animals can do those things. What’s the difference?”

Eren hummed, “I suppose that has always been the fault of the dragons. I wasn’t old enough to understand a lot of it. I just wanted to fight, to destroy the humans that threatened my kind. We are old and powerful but my forebears were… they sought to keep the secrets from humans. And in all honesty perhaps it has been better that way. How would humans feel if they knew what we were really, within the world but not of the world? How could they understand what the Silk really means, and why even the dracon fear touching the strands?”

“Within… how can you be of the world but not of the world? I don’t even know what the Silk is… I don’t know much about any of this at all,” the prior annoyance slipped away, leaving in its place a sort of hollow sensation. It was as if Levi was aware of the gaps in his knowledge as a physical feeling, and the uncomfortable emptiness had him squirming inside. “Would you teach me?” He was above pleading, but the implication was there. 

“Teach you… about the Silk?” Eren asked curiously.

“Is that something you can do or is it beyond my ‘mortal ability’ to comprehend that sort of thing? If I can know, I want to know.”

“Draega are well taught in the understanding of the dracon… though we don’t blood them anymore… so the understanding is not… _beyond_ humans,” Eren replied. “I’ve never had to explain it to anyone before. I’ve spent all these _centuries_ apparently… alone… until Armin came along I didn’t have anyone. And he was the closest to a fellow I could find. A draega with immense control and power. I think to some extent not even he knows his limits, his blood is highly concentrated, and I believe if he tried he could pass his fingers into the Silk and read it; he could. I believe that. But it would take an act of nature for him to even attempt it…” he trailed off as he looked back out into the sky. “Yes I can teach you, if you’d really like to learn, perhaps you will come to understand why people have hated us for so long… and why we were supposedly wiped from the face of the planet.”

When Eren mentioned centuries of isolation, Levi had been about to impulsively invite him back down onto the bed, just to show him some companionship. However, at the mention of Armin, a faint irritation like a burning itch settled behind his breastbone that he couldn’t place the source of. “I want to learn, yes.” _Though I don’t think I’ll understand how knowledge of a power could make me fear you._

Eren looked down at him, an odd sort of smile on his face, “You are a strange thief.”

“So everyone keeps saying. I’d like to think that I’m entirely sane and it’s the rest of the world that’s gone batshit.” 

“I never said you were insane, just strange,” Eren dropped down from his perch to sit on the bed, folding his legs. “You know they expect you to join the military after the tribunal… I have considered offering this form to help. Though once it’s destroyed it will simply be recreated…” he examined his fingers. “I have lived in it so long now… I have come to think of it as myself.”

“So you’re not somehow packing your huge scaly ass into,” Levi motioned to Eren, “that? How can you recreate a body?” The thought of having a familiar ally at his side during his stay in the military was comforting, but that thought was overshadowed by confusion from the dragon’s other words.

“Dragons form these bodies to survive. They are taken and woven from Silk fibers the same as any human, but they are soulless… homunculi I think is the word humans use. Beings who exist without souls can be used and bound by dracon, so while I am resting my true form I exist as this. And it’s quite useful in other manners, we created these forms in order to assimilate with the humans and other creatures. Eren Jaeger is far less terrifying than-- well myself…”

“Two questions, then. Where are you- your real form- when you’re like this? And are you not Eren…?” The question tasted odd on his tongue. Though he’d known people with other identities than their own, he wasn’t expecting something so drastically different from the brunette. The constant confusion he’d been feeling since the conversation started had been slowly escalating to encompass most of his senses, and without satisfactory answers it would soon be overwhelming.

“My real form remains in The Other. That is where the dragons are from, the world on the other side of the Silk where the Reave exists,” Eren explained as if it were easy to understand, “while it rests there I remain here in this body.” He seemed to hesitate then, gripping the edge of one of the blankets to flick at it nervously. “I am… Eren Jaeger,” he replied uncertainly. “In a sense there never was such a person as Eren Jaeger… I created him.”

“Okay, I understand the first part. Kind of a… parallel world that you can flip back and forth to whenever you want to, and that’s where the power comes from? But the second half lost me. You’re Eren but you created Eren. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Names have immense power in our language, we do not give them out easily, therefore I created _Eren Jaeger_ when I came to live among the humans. I never had to use it before I met Armin…” he hesitated once more. “I took it from a family that served my father. A man named Jaeger, one of the Draegi, and his wife, dedicated their lives to our cause. They had an infant son they named Eren, but when the humans brought wars to our lands--” he hesitated. “The entire family was slaughtered. Mother and son died but a hair’s breadth from each other, I never did learn what happened to the draega. Perhaps he lived on his days in loneliness… so I am _not_ Eren Jaeger. And yet I _am_ Eren Jaeger. I am not the boy that died that day. But I took his name, and his form, because they were kind to me… because they had wanted their son to live… and this way I could give him a chance in a strange way.”

Levi stared at the boy sitting across from him. That was what he appeared to be, a _boy_ in his teens, but the expression marring his young face made denying that he’d experienced lifetimes of loneliness and suffering impossible. “Alright, that cleared that up. Sort of morbid, but I can appreciate how you were thinking. So now I understand how you are and aren’t Eren, in every sense of the phrase… what else is there to know?"

“I killed all of them,” he said after a moment, knuckles white on the blankets. “All the humans who came into my lands and murdered innocent people. Mothers and children and farm workers and tailors and blacksmiths. Not soldiers. They swept over the ground like insects. Taking and destroying as they went, and when I found that little boy… when I found his mother who had been so kind to me… I killed all of them.” Rage spilled into his eyes, simmering turquoise in the dim starlight. “Humans with families the same as the one I defended. With brothers and mothers and sisters and wives and husbands and _children_ who would never see their families ride home again. I killed all of them because they… they thought that destroying the humans who served the dragons would ever be… I won’t let this form go to waste. I won’t let humans or dragons act the way they have. We can’t keep destroying ourselves. This has to stop somewhere…” the passion faded, yet for a moment he seemed older than his years, more so than before, ageless and flickering between extant and extinct with the same wise eyes that days before had looked out upon Levi framed in dark scales. “I don’t know what those other dragons want, whether they seek to destroy humanity or merely bind it once more beneath their claws, but I won’t allow them to proceed… if just because I believe in humans. I think they have kindness in them, courage and compassion and power unrivalled by any magic dragons have… I’ve... forgotten what I was saying anymore,” his voice died on his lips.

Levi sat, enraptured. When he had asked ‘what else’ he had expected more about the dragons as a whole, further color-taste wisps of magic or a description of The Other. What he had gotten was a defining moment of Eren’s past, a mention of names that had never graced the pages of history books, a terrible masterpiece of murder and justice painted for him with words that flowed like mercury from a tongue older than living memory. The fury, primal and terrifying, that had spilled into those gemstone eyes had forced Levi to grapple with his own instincts, his internal need to survive ingrained in the deepest part of his mind from a life of hardships fighting tooth and claw against the freshly budding sympathy that the story had created. His hands twitched at his side for a moment, the impulse to draw the other to his chest and attempt to give him some semblance of comfort quashed by the more rational part of his brain. “We’re all the monsters here, aren’t we?” He wanted a way to say _I understand_ or _I don’t fear you for what you’ve done_ that didn’t seem so trite, so hollow, but it did not come to him.

“Armin says monster is subjective,” Eren replied softly. “Monster is a term we use for people we don’t like because we don’t understand them, though sometimes I think misunderstanding is a rather understated term for a war that destroyed my kind and left humanity shattered.” There was a tone to his voice that spoke of subtle disagreement but perhaps he regarded his friend too highly to disagree. 

“You make me feel like a child, you know. I don’t think that a monster is only someone we don’t understand, though, it’s more what you are at the basest level. Even if you were human, the drive and passion that you have, nobody could control you… you are a monster. But that doesn’t mean you’re mindless, that’s not what the word is…” The wording was poor, Levi realized after he’d already spoken. He hoped that Eren would understand his meaning rather than taking offense.

“I am a monster,” he rolled the words around in his mouth. He tasted each one until magic curled between his lips, like the multicolored flames that had wicked from his mouth in flight. “I am a monster indeed.”

Everything about Eren was enticing to Levi, the danger that radiated off of him in waves with every shift in potent emotion was like the flame of a candle to a moth. It was so much more deadly than that, though. Eren was like a fresh flow of lava from an active volcano, mesmerizing and beautiful in its crackling ruby streams that beckoned like a siren song to be touched.

“You’re a monster who is better than so much of humanity, though. I’ve seen people kill and be killed for less than justice or revenge, I have…. We’re all the monsters, here.”

“You’re a strange thief,” Eren said again; magic dissipating into the air like wisps of smoke. “Now that I have told you my stories you will tell me yours. Perhaps not now, but before this is finished…” He looked back to the stars through the window and flopped back on the bed, stretching out around Levi.

“If you expect me to move you are deceiving yourself,” the black-haired man muttered, snuggling down further into the blankets cocooned around him. He’d said it as more of a front, reassembling the guard that’d been slowly lowered as he listened to Eren speak, as it was he’d be more than happy to share the space with the other.

“It is _my_ bed,” Eren told him.

“You moved. It’s a rule that if you move you forfeit rights to your seat, and that extends to beds. 

“There isn’t a rule!” The uncertainty in his voice was not unnoticeable, as if he was actually concerned that there may be some unwritten rule he wasn’t aware of that his movement allowed the procurement of what was _his._

“Seriously, ask Armin. ‘You move your feet, you lose your seat.’ I thought you would’ve known…? I can give you some of the blankets, or…” He trailed off, almost embarrassed for himself that he was about to suggest Eren stay.

“I’m going to tomorrow morning, but this is still _my bed_ and I’m not moving,” Eren frowned.

“Fine, fine, neither of us are moving then. If you steal the blankets which are _mine_ then you’re going to lose a limb. Or two, depends on how cold I am when I wake up.”

“I don’t mind the cold,” he replied patiently, eyes drifting closed. “Do not let what I’ve told you color your decisions in tomorrow’s trial. Listen to both sides, though I know it’s not in the human nature to do so. They have their own reasons for the way they feel about me, depending on how much Armin has told them. Perhaps I should have moni-monitored him more closely,” he yawned. “Ah well that is neither here nor there,” he hummed low in his throat; some noise close to a purr, a pleasant sound that spoke of contentment.

Levi’s eyes grew heavy from the gentle sound, but he kept himself awake until the noise rumbled to a stop. Draping the uppermost blanket across both of them, he quietly whispered, “I hope you tell me your name one day, you stupid lizard.” 

When Armin stopped in to check on them before he went to sleep, somewhere near the break of dawn, he had to stifle a sound that nearly escaped his lips: a sound of surprise at the sight before him. Eren lay sound asleep with his head tucked and cradled on the crook of the thief’s shoulder, visible arm draped over the top of the blanket and one leg haphazardly thrown over Levi’s legs. If there was ever a better blanket Armin wasn’t sure, having a dragon for a personal space heater was better than any furnace, yet he couldn’t help but feel sadness pull at his chest; inexplicable but sharp. _I wish I had known._ He walked over and adjusted the blankets, covering Eren’s bare feet so casually left uncovered, touching his friend’s face gently. _I wish he had told me all along._ He lingered only a moment longer, long enough to see Levi’s hand curl into the curve of Eren’s neck as if to counter the touch Armin had left.

_I wish you had told me how lonesome you were._

 

* * *

 

The day of the tribunal dawned grey and pink, colors mingling in the sky like a caster’s curls of miasma. It gave the small room an eerie quality as Armin pushed open the door, striding over to the bed and shaking Eren awake gently.

“You need to get up it’s time to go,” he said as sleepy eyes half opened against the fabric of his bedmate’s shirt. “You too,” he pat Levi’s cheek to wake him. He wasn’t dressed any differently than usual; white pressed shirt tucked into white pants beneath dark leather belts, but the banded collar of his shirt was new. Eren focused on it and reached out to touch the edge, only to be slapped away. He liked change about as well as a cat liked water.

The unexpected touch made Levi twitch awake, eyes snapping open and focusing on Eren first, then Armin. “How long do we have before the tribunal starts?” He inquired, absently rubbing at Eren’s shoulder as he waited for the dragon to disentangle himself.

“A few hours, we’re heading into the city so you’ll both be in a covered carriage,” Armin watched Eren sit up, yawning broadly. “Come on, Eren, you’re holding everybody up.”  
  
“S-Sorry,” he yawned again, forcing Armin to stifle one as well.  
  
“Okay enough of that, come on,” Armin pulled him up onto his feet. “Get dressed, your clothes are over there.” He shoved Eren in the general direction of the other bed, “I have clothes for you, as well, a uniform as instructed by Commander Smith.”  
  
Eren gave a stupid sort of laugh at that, head stuck in his night shirt, “They want ‘im to look like a goon?”  
  
“Most people think the uniforms are nice, Eren,” Armin chided.  
  
“Most people also think dragons are extinct,” he replied with one of the most coherent comebacks he’d ever managed this early in the morning.

“I’ll make sure they stuff you in one at some point, too,” Levi grumbled, extracting himself from the blankets that had wound around him and pulling off his shirt. “It’s fucking cold, is there a matching scarf for this trash?” 

“All I have is cravats,” Armin replied patiently.

“That…” The thought of wearing something so disgustingly _upper class_ made him cringe, but he remembered Erwin’s comment about how deep the snow was and swallowed his pride, “will have to do, I suppose.”

Another snarky half laugh came from Eren’s direction and Armin rolled his eyes, walking into the other room, “Now you’re going to look even more like a goon.”

“You can suck my dick, I’d rather dress like a military clown than end up dead. Besides, we’re going to be dealing with mostly aristocrats, it’s best to play into their tastes,” he narrowed his grey-blue eyes at the other, annoyance making the muscles in his jaw twitch as he buttoned up a starched white shirt.

“Your harnesses as well,” Armin returned with both items in hand. There was a man in tow behind him this time, yet another person that Eren knew--  
  
“Marco!” Eren had met Armin’s friends before, most of them anyway, Marco had been the first person to speak with him when he had been folded into the Recon Corps by Erwin and as such had been the first person Eren had met.  
  
“I wondered if I’d get to see you,” Marco’s face softened. “I’ve been running errands mostly, not much use for a team leader if we’re not fighting.” He set down the tray of tea and biscuits on the dresser for them. “Feels a little… stupid. Jean and I have just been sitting around with the others, waiting.”  
  
“Waiting is hard,” Eren empathized. Even if he hadn’t spoke of it… the nagging concern still hung in his mind; if something went wrong he would die today. Even if they only killed this body. They would force Armin to tell them where his true form lay and-- his eyes fell on Levi. Levi now knew where his dragon form rested. _Why did I talk so much last night?_

“I suppose this is where I pass them off to you, Commander Smith wants to see me in his office,” Armin sighed tiredly.  
  
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with him again, and you look exhausted,” Marco’s voice sounded almost _concerned._  
  
“He’s my commander, and he’s given me a place to be without people scrambling from my path. I owe him a few nights’ sleep,” Armin dismissed. “Eren, Levi I will see you at the tribunal.”  
  
“Okay,” Eren sounded almost disappointed. “Am I to wear these?” He trailed his fingers over a deep blue cloak, trimmed with gold, and soft leather gloves.  
  
“I thought that if you were going to be presented as a dragon you might as well look like one?” Armin’s lips quirked and Eren had a feeling this was yet another one of his schemes that he wasn’t about to reveal just yet.  
  
“Certainly,” Eren agreed, watching Marco hand Levi a hunter green cloak. “I want one of those…”  
  
“You’ll get one if you join,” Armin touched his face gently. “Play along, everything’s going to be okay.”  
  
“I trust you,” Eren leaned down and bumped their foreheads together. A sign of warmth and affection he had practiced for years, yet another one of the odd things that Armin was now able to attribute to his true self. _Dragons._ He turned and walked from the room, tension burning in his shoulders. _I have to believe this will work. Erwin knows what he’s doing._

Finishing fastening the harness and tying the cravat around his neck before securing his cloak, Levi turned to the others. “Do I look like a proper soldier? Or does the damn scarf stand-in ruin it?” The weight of the situation had made itself clearer while he’d fiddled with the steel fastenings of the harness, and he suddenly wished that the uniform felt more natural on his frame. 

"I think you look nice," Marco nodded approvingly. "I saw your skill with the maneuver gear, impressive. Commander Erwin has been talking about you ever since you got here."

"Still a thief," Eren fastened the cloak at his throat, adjusting the cowl to his liking, before looking up at Levi and passing his fingers over the throat of his collar. His spell burst between the creases of his fingers, tendrils folding in on themselves and winding together to form a glistening black broach in the shape of a dragon, wings spread wide and curling around his collar. Its eyes glittered with emeralds, tail curled against his collarbone, each intricate detail indicative of the dragon's pride-- if he was going to be in trial he would hold his head high.

"He's being absolved of those crimes, I thought?" Marco asked curiously.

"A monster is never free of its sins," Eren replied. "Bind him to your uniform if you will... But he will never be like you or the others," he tilted his chin up. "Just as _I_ am a monster. And will never be human."

"Hey Marco it's--" Jean stopped in the doorway, cloaks over his arm. "Well I'll be damned, you two look pretty convincing."

"Is it time?" Eren asked. 

"Yes, Thief you will come with me, Eren will go with Marco."

"What?!" Eren sounded incredulous.

"Levi is going to be riding in a separate carriage, Eren, surely you knew?" Marco frowned. 

"Of course," he tried to pass off his lapse of fear. "Then let's go," he followed Marco out once he'd swung his cloak around his shoulders. He turned his head, eyes lingering just a moment on Levi's face before they were gone with a sweep of Eren's robes.

Levi turned to Jean, annoyed. “I have a name. Seriously, if you’re all calling me ‘thief’ during the tribunal I doubt they’ll want to listen to what I have to say.”

“I doubt they want to listen to what you have to say as it is, _Thief_ isn’t about to change that,” Jean replied bluntly.

The black-haired man narrowed his eyes, glaring at Jean. If the uniform wasn’t almost entirely white he would’ve tripped him to fall face-first into the muddy slush of the street, but being that they had to look presentable he restrained himself. “Doesn’t sound like you’re overly concerned about Eren.”

“Whether I’m concerned or not doesn’t really matter when I already know that this is an exercise in futility. Commander Erwin can manipulate the court all he wants but when they, like everyone else, hear the word _dragon_ they’re going to slaughter him right then and there. And likely make Armin do it since he’s standing there. I’d rather take him out back and shoot him myself to spare both of them,” he opened the door to the carriage. “And yet here we are, a thief in our uniform and a dragon in a carriage. Funny how that shit works out.” 

“I can’t say that it won’t end like that, but regardless of if this really is just a futile effort or not we won’t know unless we put everything we have into it. All we can do is trust that we won’t regret the decision we made, in the end. Even if Armin has to kill Eren, I don’t doubt for a second that he won’t regret trying to defend him.”

“I hope you’re right,” he shut the door after him and climbed up next to the driver, “let’s get going.”

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tribunal for Eren's life brings surprises and determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Happy Christmas Everybody!**

Eren let his head drop back as they rode, eyes closing against the rocking motion of the carriage. He hated riding, it was much easier to slip between the folds of the world and arrive at his destination unseen rather than being jostled around and jerked by the movement of steel banded wheels against cobblestone paths. He wished for a moment he was in a position to change everything, to knit the paths these humans’ lives would take into a different shape-- leading away from him and his. 

He wished he could do the same for the other dragons. _Dragons._ The word flitted on his tongue and rolled into the air like quiet thunder. Dark enough to shake his senses and rattle the very core of his being as he leaned forward, lacing his fingers together against his forehead. _Where did they come from?_ He wondered why they hadn’t found him. Why no dragons had come to him. _Where could they have hidden all these years?_

“Eren,” the door swung open to a smiling face. “How was the ride?”  
  
“Rough,” Eren replied and climbed out, pulling his cloak around himself closer. “What are those?”  
  
“Shackles,” Marco latched the collar around his neck, “I’m sorry.”  
  
“It’s understandable,” Eren let him chain his wrists, glancing over to the other carriage curiously. _I bet he won’t be shackled._

As the carriages rolled to a stop, Levi peeked his head out the door to investigate the courthouse. From the pseudo-flight of the maneuver gear the large building disappeared amongst the others, but looking at it from the street the monument was so much more imposing. The marble pillars that framed either side of its grand oaken doors made it into a gloriously imposing place; it seemed like a wonderful site to read a eulogy or beg for your life in front of an apathetic jury.

“Here we are,” Jean opened the door to Levi’s carriage, “You’ll be with us in the box.”

“Glad to see you could make it,” Erwin stood just before the doors, Armin at his elbow. This time, however, there were two others standing beside him as well. A man, imposing in height, with sandy brown hair and a scraggly beard stood beside a brown haired woman with leathered goggles on her head and long hide gloves folded up over her elbows. The woman bounced in place on the balls of her feet, eagerly awaiting the new arrivals.

“Is that him, Erwin?” The woman whispered before glancing over at Armin. “It is him right?” She shifted just slightly towards Levi.  
  
“Nuh uh, the other,” Armin shook his head and watched her face sink with interest, pulling a notebook out of her breast pocket.  
  
“Oh!” She exclaimed, bouncing becoming more excited. “So he just looks like an ordinary boy? How _interesting_!” Her voice held a manic edge to it, similar to Armin’s curiosity but twisted to a more obsessive pitch. She scribbled something on a page of the notebook before approaching Eren, holding a hand out to him. “It’s very nice to meet you, I hope you don’t die today. I’d like to talk to you! And maybe run some experiments.”

“I’ll try not to die,” he lifted his shackled hands to her offered handshake. He seemed a little ruffled by her blunt enthusiasm, eyes shifting to find Armin’s face.  
  
“Enough talking,” Erwin gestured. “Hanji, Mike, take him in. Levi you will come with me,” he turned towards the doors and the guards standing outside shoved them open without hesitance as Armin followed him.

“So, Commander, how do you expect this trial to go today? You seem to be rather good at predicting outcomes,” Levi murmured, just a tinge of mockery coloring his voice. _I don’t know what you’re thinking, but your subordinates certainly think this is doomed to fail._

“You’re starting to sound nervous,” Erwin said in reply, pausing as Armin turned down a different corridor. A look was exchanged, Armin stalling in the hall amid the susurrus of his robes, an unspoken understanding as his iridescent eyes searched his superior’s face only to receive an almost imperceptible nod in return. Then Armin was gone, sweeping off and vanishing around a corner.

Levi noted the exchange before responding, “I’d say you were starting to sound constipated but I’m pretty sure that’s just you.” No, he wasn’t _nervous_ per se, he was concerned with how the human element might twist what should be a straightforward decision into a question of morals. There was no tightening, fluttering feeling in his gut, just a slow simmering headache building behind his eyes.

“Everything is going as planned, with all said and done we should get out of here scotch free and never have to look back,” Erwin mused. “I should think your induction will be soon, it would be a waste to put you through training.”  
  
“Why don’t you just call me Captain and we can live happily ever after.”  
  
Erwin scoffed, “You get a title like that when you prove yourself. So far all I’ve seen is a thief who’s good with a maneuver gear.”  
  
“So you did come, here I thought you might shirk,” a voice sneered from the end of the hall.  
  
“Nile, always good to see you,” Erwin’s lips drew thin, the only show of distaste.  
  
Levi looked over the newcomer before stepping just slightly to the left, subtly ducking behind Erwin’s broad frame. _Shit. I should’ve known that the head of the Military Police would be here. I just hope that nobody recognizes me._

“What have you got there? Another half-hearted charity case?” Nile mused, “You always were a weakling.”  
  
“Those dragons…” Erwin mused, looking at the ceiling, “Must be terrified of your banter.”  
  
Nile’s face soured further, “What’s all this?” A slightly friendlier voice joined.  
  
“Pixis… Here I thought you wouldn’t be coming all the way from Rose district…” Nile’s day didn’t seem to be getting any better from the way Erwin’s brows quirked up as he searched out the third Commander to join the group.

The newcomer was bald, face wrinkled and tanned like leather, but there was an odd smile on his face-- one that was almost unsettling in its sincerity. Commander Dot Pixis was well known for being a bit… _odd_ if no other words could describe it. _Eccentric_ was perhaps the second best choice and for him to be here was something near a relief.  
  
“You’ve let yourself go, Nile,” Pixis said, thumbing at the silver flask shining at his hip. “And who might you be?” He looked down at Levi imploringly-- something about his gaze said he was looking straight through him, down into his being-- as if he already knew the truth about him.

“I’m the new guy,” Levi answered, unsettled. He composed his face as well as he could- and that was quite well- but he still had the creeping sensation that this man could hear his thoughts. _Whole fuckwagon worth of mind readers, that’s what the military is._

“New guy,” Pixis mused. “Interesting, and where is this dragon you promised us?” He looked to Erwin.  
  
“You’ll see him soon, just step inside and be patient,” Erwin gestured, holding the door open. Pixis chuckled goodnaturedly and walked past him, meeting his subordinates, but Nile paused, catching Erwin’s lapel in his fist.  
  
“Don’t try anything funny, Smith, this dragon is on the chopping block and your ass with it,” he hissed.

Erwin seemed unruffled even as Nile turned away into the courtroom, “Dawk always did have a problem with formalities.”

“I’ve never liked him much, he sucks with the maneuver gear. Like honestly, you and your folk can keep up with your wyverns and gear but the military police…” Levi huffed a small sound of amusement, “It’s not even child’s play.”

Erwin looked at him out of the corner of his eye, “I think I’m going to like having you around.” 

“Commander Erwin!” A guard’s voice echoed in the marble hallways, footsteps banging against the intricately carved columns. Erwin raised a hand in greeting, the pair continuing to the end of the hallway. Before they could enter the main room of the courthouse, a second voice called out “Damn it, someone stop her!”

Turning around, Levi watched a raven-haired girl dressed in uniform sprint past a guard, another laying on the floor not far beyond him. When she tried to brush past Levi into the courtroom, he grabbed her by the wrist and pinned her to the nearest column when she tried to sweep his legs out from under him.

“Who’s this?” Levi asked Erwin, studying the soldier’s face. She bared her teeth at him, struggling and trying to get out of his grasp to continue into the courtroom.  
  
“Ackerman!” The Commander tried to get her attention. “Your brigade was out on the East Mountains! What are you doing here?”

“I was notified about the attack on Shiganshina and half my force returned for more information. Then I learned that it was Eren, and… I am here to testify. Sir.” The look on her face was simultaneously apologetic and defiant. It read _I’m going to do whatever I think is necessary and you can’t stop me, I’m sorry_ loud and clear. “Now get _off_ me,” she hissed, turning her focus back to Levi. 

The grey-eyed man stepped back, but held tight to one of her wrists. “Come stand by us. After all, we can’t have you running out into the middle of the floor and doing something rash, now can we?”

Erwin seemed visibly impressed, even going so far as to cover his mouth with his hand to hide the shock. To think that either Levi had fallen into his part too well or cared about the dragon he was currently indebted to enough to act the way he was had Erwin wondering just how loyal this man was and just how useful his acting skills could be.  
  
“Take her inside, it’s time we got this over with.”  
  
Levi nodded, loosening his grip on Mikasa’s wrist but still holding tight enough that she’d have to put some effort into breaking his hold. The trio walked in, moving to take their place on the stands. Levi could almost feel Erwin’s eyes boring into him as he observed the room, as if the blonde was cataloging his reactions to the lavish interior.

While the hallways hadn’t been anything spectacular, the courtroom itself had the same air as the outside of the building. Grand vaulted ceilings illuminated by ornate oil lamps held portraits of saints and scales, representations of justice long since stained by the smoke of the lights and aristocrat’s pipes. On either side of the large floor space stood gorgeously carved stands for the witnesses, the jury, the executioners all alike. At the head of the room was an imposing oaken podium at which the judge sat, observing the crowd disinterestedly.

Kneeling alone like a rock in the midst of the tide, bound in place by iron shackles with head held high, was Eren.

The dragon watched them all with calculation in his teal eyes, flickering like flames in the whites of his irises before they landed on Mikasa. For the first time he moved, rattling against his chains to see Levi and Erwin flanking her. _What is she doing here?_ Panic built in his chest and he shook his bindings once more nervously.

“He didn’t expect you to be here,” Levi observed, roughly elbowing Mikasa. If she was going to show up and change what few concrete plans that they had, he certainly wasn’t going to be kind to her. As Eren’s eyes narrowed further, however, he wondered just what this girl was to him. “Why _are_ you here?”  
  
“I’m here to make sure that the person that _saved my life_ doesn’t die. What reason do you have?” She glared him down, dusky graphite eyes fixing on his lighter slate ones. Everything about her was possessive of Eren, as if any that dared to approach him was a challenge.

“I’m here to make sure my life gets saved,” Levi murmured in response. He knew that Erwin had promised him a position in the Corps just for testifying, but as crafty as the bastard was he might decide that a positive ruling was the requirement for what little freedom he’d be given.

The look she fixed him with was all venom, and he smirked back at her. She may be closer to Eren, for all he knew, but keeping his own relationship as ambiguous as possible was proving to be amusing.

“All present rise for Generalissimo Zackly!” A ward barked as a bearded man stepped up to the front of the room, a file tucked beneath his arm. He was imposing the same way Erwin was, tall and broad like a redwood in its prime with a beard less groomed than Eren would have expected.

The crowd rose and sat mechanically at the prompting of the director, and the procession of formalities that followed were enough to bore Levi’s nerves away. Erwin looked put together and attentive as always, and the thief wondered how many years of practice it must have taken for him to not seem as bored as everyone else was. Or maybe he was genuinely interested in the dull list of titles that all the ranking officers held, the masochistic bastard. 

“Commander Smith you have brought before me, today, what you say is a dragon in human form?” Zackly asked as he sat, raising his hand for quiet.

“He is a dragon that operates under the name Eren Jaeger, General,” Erwin spoke from his salute; hands hard against his body.  
  
“We have reports that he has been living in Shinganshina for at least one human lifetime, though how he came to be there is still in question,” Eren’s eyes shifted to the speaker: a man with a weak beard and dark hair.  
  
“Thank you, Commander Dawk,” the General nodded patiently. “Your report includes other information does it not?”  
  
“Yessir, we have a dragon specialist here along with Draega Armin Arlert to help further explain his actions,” Erwin said seriously.

“We have serious reason to believe that the recent dragon attack had nothing to do with Eren. He has been living here for as long as most people can remember, and as is typical of dragons he considers it his territory. The battle that some of you may have witnessed was him fighting to _protect_ Shiganshina from outside danger,” Armin stated, opalescent eyes glinting with conviction.

“Unlikely,” Dawk scoffed. “It’s likely he simply knew the Recon Corps was nearby, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Did anyone _see_ him before the city was on fire?”

“Actually, someone did,” Levi announced, stepping forward. “I was with him when the other two dragons attacked.” 

Zackly looked towards the speaker, interested. “Go on.”

“We were having a… minor spat about whether or not I was trespassing when we heard roaring outside. I had no clue what it was,” he said with an indifferent shrug, “but Eren was already halfway out the door and sprouting a tail by the time I realized that it was way too bright to be the middle of the night. I follow him out and what do you know, the city is on fire and there’s three enormous scaly assh- dragons on the loose. Well, two, really. There was a gold one and a red one flying, and a black one still on the ground. I decided to climb aboard and it took off, flying straight at the others with claws ready and teeth bared. It wasn’t until a little later that I found out that the black dragon was Eren.”

“Regardless we have evidence that suggests he murders humans!” Dawk interrupted. This revelation didn’t seem to phase Erwin or his carbon copy standing silently by his side.

“What evidence? He defended a rider- me- during combat and he risked his own life to save the entire city. He was remorseful that he couldn’t save _more_ of the citizens.”

“Evidence like the bodies of a dozen or so men discovered in and nearby a cottage located in the outskirts of Shiganshina,” Nile ignored the second half of Levi’s statement, grinning smugly.

“Yes, there is a report here from the police that he and a young girl were found in a cabin the bodies of three men,” Zackly murmured. “But I don’t see anything about a _dozen_.”  
  
Eren looked almost panicked, turning his head towards Armin in fear. _Did they know about this?_ He wondered. _I didn’t know they found them! How!_ He found his friend stone-faced, passive and unreadable beside his commander, blue eyes calm and collected as he watched Dawk. He was waiting his turn, waiting for _something._

“The three men found in the cabin were confirmed to have been killed with a similar weapon as the nine other bodies found piled together in a thatch of woods,” Dawk explained, glancing over the paperwork in his hand. “Some of them were nearly decapitated from the force of the blows to their throats, still others were eviscerated and a few had broken necks and limbs brought on by blunt trauma.”

“And you’re implying that Eren did that?” Erwin asked calmly, still seemingly assured that all was going just as planned.

“It certainly wasn’t an ordinary child,” Nile replied. “Did you think that one man could take down nine innocent--”  
  
“They weren’t innocent,” Eren growled low.  
  
“ _Innocent_ travelers? Attacked and ransacked for their pitiable wealth and possessions by a monster with no morals or human empathy?”  
  
“Did you hear me? I said they weren’t _innocent,_ ” Eren’s voice rose just slightly. “And I took nothing from their _pitiable_ bodies,” he spat the word out as if it were acid on his tongue.

The more faint-hearted of those in the stands shuffled back, muttering to each other quietly. Levi picked up things like _violent_ and _beast_ and _kill him before he kills us_ from the muted conversation, and his heart dropped low in his stomach. Nile looked smug, the glee in his eyes and small smirk foiled by the snarl of Eren’s lips.

“So you admit it? That you murdered those men?” Nile pressed, at the upper hand.  
  
“It’s not murder to put down dogs, is it?” Eren replied. “Rapists and slavers who raided _my_ lands and _my_ people.”  
  
“ _Your people!_ As if humans belonged to you once again!” Eren’s ire only seemed to be stroked by Nile’s provocations, his wisdom failing him. “You destroyed lives and have done so again! Only to ask us to _live?”_  
  
“ _I’ve only protected what is MINE!”_ Eren jerked against his chains, sharp canines glinting in the gas light. “Humans are so content to keep their own kind alive when they allow _beasts_ to roam among them wearing their own skin. Creatures without kindness or _human empathy_ as you say.”  
  
“Silence! He bewitches with his tongue!” A priest uttered the words, sending the room into something of a panic.

“No more than Dawk bewitches you with his,” Levi growled, not quite loud enough to be heard but by those nearest to him.

“They were simply travelling, why murder them senselessly?” Nile was starting to seem a little ruffled, disrupted by the quiet chaos around him. 

“They would have killed her! So I killed them first!” Eren snarled. “They were the murderers and yet here you are accusing me!”  
  
“YOU ARE A HUMAN KILLER, MONSTER!” Nile threatened. “He must be put down! Destroyed in order for humanity to survive!” He turned to the General.  
  
Levi took a deep breath, unclenching his hands where they had balled into fists tight enough to leave red crescents on his palms. Stepping over to Eren’s aggressor, calmly so as not to arouse any suspicion, he quickly grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and the belt of his trousers and tossed him over the bannister. Nile landed in a tangle of limbs at the dragon’s knees and groaned out a vaguely confused noise, slowly moving to stand. He was stopped when Levi hopped over the railing himself, standing with one foot on the center of the Commander’s back and holding him in place.

“He is more than capable of breaking out of those chains, don’t you agree? He’s capable, as a merciless violent monster, of snapping that metal like it’s nothing and murdering the both of us, right?” The thief raised his head and looked around the room, making eye contact with every person that was brave enough not to be cowering in fear of what was to come. 

Eren’s face was more than just surprised, it was nearly _slack_ in its emotion: brows lifted and lips parted in amazement at the actions of the thief before him. There were thoughts in his head, none particularly lucid in the face of his predicament, eyes wide and sharp as he took everything in. Everything being done in _his_ name.

“But he’s _not._ He’s capable of making the decision of whether to take a life, who is guilty and who is innocent, who is dangerous and who _isn’t._ More capablethan any of you standing in here! You all sit there pissing yourselves like frightened children, taking up torches and screaming _kill the monster,_ making the choice to take a life without considering whether or not the one on trial is innocent. You realize, you’re doing what you’ve accused him of. You _do_ realize that _you’re all_ more dangerous monsters than the one chained here, refusing to harm any of you even to save his own life?!”  

Levi removed his boot from Dawk’s back, pulling him up by the shoulder straps of the maneuver gear to be eye-to-eye with Eren.

“Look this _monster_ in the face. Look him straight in the eye and tell me you don’t see a human there.”

Eren’s brows dipped, face recovering only slightly, the ocean blue of his irises flickering as he searched the face of the man before him. The dragon leaned, supported by the weight of his bindings, determination burning its way into his expression until all that was left of his surprise were the memories of the onlookers too terrified to avert their eyes.  
  
Armin could feel the tension in the air, licking his dry lips before glancing up at his Commander out of the corner of his eye. Erwin’s poker face was perfect, unshakeable in its unreadable glory, but even he licked his lips in anticipation; leaning his body forward as if on the tips of his toes. _If this goes bad we’re all going down._  
  
“That’s enough!” Zackly demanded. “I will have order in my court! Commander Smith! Control your troops! Commander Dawk I want you out of my court!”  
  
“Yes sir!” Erwin barked. The tension broke from his shoulders, and Armin released a sigh of relief. “Levi!”

“Yes, sir,” Levi answered, offering a hand to the subtly trembling form at his feet. When it was slapped away, he shrugged and walked calmly back to his place at Erwin’s side. Though his facade was nearly as composed as his Commander’s, inside the roiling blend of tension and dread had his lungs refusing to function as they should. _I think I just fucked up._  

“As you can clearly see, as one of our soldiers has so kindly volunteered for you, Eren is not a danger even when provoked,” Armin’s voice was smooth and unhindered as he stepped forward just enough to gain the attention of the others. “He is a dragon, there is no doubt about that, but he is also an _asset_ to humanity. Were we to allow this to go to waste it would certainly be a detriment to our cause and a regret in the future.”  
  
“You are the draega, I’ve heard of you,” Zackly mused. “Erwin’s unconventional choices seemed to be faring him well in this unconventional time.”

“Unconventional indeed, General,” Armin saluted.  
  
“I have heard the reports of your experience, I do believe this boy being a dragon came as quite a shock, yes?”  
  
“Indeed, General, I grew up with Eren. He has never given me any reason not to trust him,” he allowed his eyes to flicker over to where Eren knelt, finding adoration in return. “Were he to have attempted to thrall me or otherwise inflict magic upon my blood he would have found it impossible and I would have known immediately what he was.”  
  
“And what do you have to say about these supposed _murders?_ ”  
  
“I believe they were in the best interest of his people, General. Dragons are highly territorial and possessive; some may call it _greed_ , but whatever it is he would never act in a way that would cause harm to something that belonged to him. Be that an object or a human who lives within the area he defends.”  
  
Zackly seemed to consider this, leaning back in his chair with sharp eyes on Eren’s ever-proud face. He glanced over Armin and Erwin, settling on Levi before returning to the dragon-- stroking his beard. “What would you do with him?”

“We would use him to strengthen our defenses, sir, in order to combat the other dragons that have appeared.” Erwin’s voice came clear and sharp through the air, a distinct contrast to the almost lulling tone of the draega. Their mannerisms were different but no less effective. “If more dracon could be culled and used for power to combat this threat we would be a mightier threat to those that threaten our lands. The dragons must not be allowed to reign again.”  
  
Eren watched the exchange passively, the grim look to his face a deadened sort of resignation coupled with timeless melancholy. He was allowed to live so that he could be used, used to destroy the species that he’d yearned for in his solitude. Yet, somehow, this was less unsettling than it should have been. Dragons had now destroyed the lives of those who had been so kind to him, dragons just the same as the humans who had stolen the lives of the family whose name he now bore like a badge of honor.

Despite the years that separated them Eren felt that only one truth could come of this farce: dragons and humans were not very different after all.

* * *

“Levi I need to speak with you,” Erwin said as they paused outside the grand oak doors, allowing Armin to push them open. The blonde looked between them, tilting his head curiously. “Go on,” Erwin gestured and Armin turned to walk into the room.

“I know what this is about, obviously, but please continue,” Levi said, meeting Erwin’s gaze without hesitance. 

“Even if you know what it’s about that isn’t going to stop me from telling you anyway: If you ever act out of line that way again I will have you flogged for insubordination,” Erwin told him. He was continuously unreadable, a mystery in thought and understanding; blue eyes bright and ferocious in their quality but somehow lacking in _something._  Lacking in warmth and the glow of human kindness, or the empathy that was so frequently softening the corners of a harsh stare.

“I don’t regret my decision… sir. And I wouldn’t regret making it again, punishment be damned,” Levi straightened his shoulders in attempts to convey his seriousness.

“You won’t make another decision like that again, do you understand me?” Erwin told him. “I make the decisions here and I will beat that into you if I have to. You are a part of the military now and you will obey my orders or you will be _jailed_ and tried for your crimes.”

Levi’s eyes narrowed and his lip curled slightly, countenance similar to that of an angry cat. “You have my word that I will act under your orders,” he seemed about to continue the thought, but reconsidered. “I won’t stand being treated as less than any of your other subordinates for my past, though.”

“Consider your slate wiped clean,” Erwin gestured towards the room. “Be sure you know where you stand, however, another wrong move like that and I will not hesitate to respond.”

“I stand at the side of humanity, but despite that I’ll do what I can not to force your hand.”

_What an asshole._

* * *

Eren wondered if it was possible for his headache to get any worse, his skull throbbing violently in time with his pulse each time someone walked past him speaking quietly to another. He picked at the bandages now wrapped around his wrists and neck to protect the pressure burns from tugging against his restraints, stomach bubbling nervously. He nearly jumped as the door opened to allow Armin through. He saw Armin pause, briefly, and heard a murmured response to his unspoken question before his friend strode across the room to him. 

  
“What’s going on?” Eren asked softly.  
  
“You’re being released,” Armin knelt down. “Are you okay?”  
  
“Where’s Mikasa?”  
  
“Safe with Jean and Marco, I hadn’t planned on her being here… but I suppose at least it didn’t cause a disruption,” Armin sighed.  
  
“I’m sorry, Armin,” Eren hung his head. “I probably messed everything up didn’t I?”  
  
“Not at all, everything went swimmingly if I do say so myself!” Armin said happily.

“What?” Eren’s gasp of surprise was audible. “Why do you say that?”  
  
“We--” Armin turned his head as the others entered, earning a nod from his Commander. “That is to say Erwin and I expected something like this to happen.”  
  
“Really?” Eren blinked, eyes finding Levi’s face. _They knew?_  
  
“Yes, really, Eren you’ve been released on a reprieve. Do you know what that means?” Erwin asked him.  
  
“They can change their minds.”  
  
“Correct and they will change their minds at the drop of a hat,” Erwin nodded. “We received a fresh batch of trainees today, hot off the presses, you will be broken in with them.”  
  
“But sir…” Armin hesitated to protest despite his familiarity with the Commander, “It’s… dangerous to learn to use the maneuver gear… he’ll need _training_ and he’s…”  
  
“Armin don’t worry about me,” Eren pulled at his robes with a faint smile. “I will do what it takes to help my own. I cannot allow those dragons to destroy everything I hold dear.”  
  
Armin saw a familiar determination in his eyes, but lingering behind it was a softness that hurt his heart. Eren was suffering, even if he claimed that he wasn’t, a strange sadness that Armin wished he could understand. _It is incredible what you’re capable of._ He gripped his friend’s shoulder.  
  
“Alright, I believe you,” Armin felt the tension ease from Eren’s shoulders, at least for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're presenting this chapter without commentary. Just know that writing tribunal scenes are a bitch and it took us a really long time.
> 
> tumblr: thingsishouldntbedoing and windwolf0097
> 
> tracking: fic: the silk of a soul


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dragon eyes flickered down to his listener’s mouth, betraying his thoughts despite his harsh words.

The walk out of the courthouse wasn’t nearly as challenging as the one in. Eren found that the interested crowds had dissipated slightly from waiting in the sun all day, glancing about at the empty cobblestone streets in the fading light of dusk.

“You’ll be riding with Levi, this time,” Armin murmured to him apologetically. “The Commander and I have to discuss exactly what’s to be done about,” he made a circular gesture with a fingertip as he thought, “today.” 

“Right, I understand,” Eren nodded. “Thank you, Armin, for what you did.”  
  
“Don’t thank me, if everything wouldn’t have gone as planned you would have been a dead man… thank Levi,” he nodded his head towards the carriage.  
  
Eren swallowed, then turned and walked towards the carriage into which Levi had already been deposited, pausing to run his fingers over the door handle. _I’m free now. I could take back my stolen goods from him and be done…_ But he knew better.

Levi sat on one of the wooden benches in the carriage, absently running his fingers across the cravat around his throat. The relief from the positive ruling was fading, a faint buzz of adrenaline that renewed itself whenever he thought of the impulses that he’d succumbed to taking its place. ‘What if’s were thumping behind his eyes, alternate outcomes for an event already past, and he let his head fall against the wall of the cart with a hollow thunk. 

The sound jolted Eren out of his reverie, hand gripping and turning the door handle with a strange sense of finality, “Was that you?” He bowed his head and stepped into the carriage. “Armin is riding with Commander Smith so…” He gestured around them as if to indicate that their location had something to do with what he had to say.

“The thump? Yeah, that was me. I’m kinda surprised they shoved you back here with me, though, Commander Eyebrows has me under warning that if I try any funny business he’s going to beat the snark out of me,” Levi muttered, annoyed. “Sorry I shoved that fuckwit Dawk in your face back there, though. I wouldn’t want to be too close to him myself.” He rubbed at where his head had contacted the wood, surprised at how hard he’d bumped it in his exasperation. 

“It’s okay…” Eren thumbed at the edge of his cloak, closing his eyes almost tiredly. “It seemed it was necessary at the time.”

“Alright,” the thief agreed, if only because he couldn’t think of anything more to say. Levi, with the knowledge that he had, kept looking for ways that Eren seemed _old_ despite his youthful appearance; studying him while the dragon’s eyes were closed, observing the way he slouched now that he had no reason to keep his shoulders back and head held high, the almost imperceptible shift of his body when he sighed. Despite the urge to offer the brunette his shoulder for a slightly more comfortable nap, he kept quiet and crossed his ankles instead.

“I’ve been given a reprieve… that doesn’t mean I was proven innocent…” Eren said after a long silence, swaying with the movement of the cart. “And now…” His eyes opened a sliver, looking down at Levi’s boots. “Now I will kill those who dared to enter my territory…”

“Regardless of if you were ruled innocent or not, your head isn’t lying in a bucket somewhere and you have the opportunity to get revenge so I’m going to take the victory where I can find it,” Levi frowned, crossing his arms and leaning his head back as he settled into a more comfortable position.

Eren looked up at him, searching out the outline of his body in the fading light. This man was a strange one, he’d proven that time and time again: from his blatant disregard for personal property, to his defense of Eren during his time unconscious, to the display in the courtroom for Eren’s sake-- not to mention his constant thirst for information concerning Eren’s kind. _What are you?_ He distinctly remembered his spell backfiring, something he hadn’t had time to think about before now, he remembered how Levi had been coherent even after being exposed to the dragon magic he should have been unused to. _What_ are _you?_  

Levi’s eyes remained trained on the ceiling, unaware of the calculating gaze now fixed on him. The bumpy road that the carriage trundled along didn’t bother him, despite the hard wooden bench he rested on, and he allowed himself to relax entirely. It was strange for the thief, to be able to share a small space with another being and not feel the need to be high-strung and on guard, but he trusted Eren not to turn against him. At least for the moment.

“Tell me,” Eren interrupted the quiet abruptly, “Where are you from?”

Levi started a bit, twitching from the surprise. “I don’t know. I was on my own from… a young age, the first town that I stayed in long enough to remember the name of was Sina. So there, I guess.” 

“Sina… the Queenstown,” Eren said. “ _Queenstown_. Queen of what?” There was an odd bitterness in his voice for the first time since they’d met. A vengeful, trapped sort of sound that cut his words short. “What did you do there? How did you become a thief?” He changed the subject quickly, leaning back in his seat and stretching his long legs out as tanned fingers tugged at the broach at his throat.

“The question is less ‘how did I become a thief’ and more ‘how did I not get caught.’ When you’re an orphan you can either wriggle your sorry ass into some family’s life or you can head down the  low road. I started by just taking food and the stuff I needed, had a rotation for the districts I was in so I was never recognized. Kinda escalated from there, I was a prodigy.” Levi looked at Eren, a wistful half-smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“You are wealthy and well known now,” Eren responded. 

“I’m a _soldier_ now,” Levi said with a small _tch_ noise. “Wealthy is in the pocket of the beholder, anyway. Now you, asshat, why aren’t you sitting pretty with some land or a business? I’ve seen your shit, you could’ve had a hell of a lot more than some shack.”

“Wouldn’t it be suspicious if someone lived forever?” He asked. “If I brought too much attention to myself I’m sure humans would begin to ask questions. I have quietly purchased lands over the years through the _human_ channels,” there was a touch of disdain to his voice. “I should think I was merely purchasing the paper and ink the deed is written upon rather than the land itself.”

“Yeah, you got a point there. Then again, not everyone is like the blonde demons that we call allies, you could probably get away with a plush lifestyle for more than a couple lifetimes before someone noticed,” the black haired man shrugged, scratching at the back of a wrist. “How many acres have you amassed in your time?”

“I live comfortably and I help those who need it,” he murmured. “I am not cruel. Shinganshina was a poor village but I kept them alive as best I could without arousing suspicion. If that meant I cared for their crops or dropped coin in the street… subtleties that kept individuals thriving. It was all I could do… I…” his lips faltered on the words, stilling half parted.

“You alright?” Levi asked, eyebrows pinching slightly. 

“Perhaps I didn’t do enough,” his downcast gaze flickered as trees passed beside them. “Maybe I… could have done more for them…”

Levi growled in annoyance, chewing at his lip for a moment before moving to sit next to Eren. Looking the dragon in the eye he put a hand on the other’s shoulder to convey his seriousness. 

“Listen to me. You’ve done more to help those people than anyone else has. There’s no point in regretting that you didn’t do more because you _did_ help. Making me feel like even lower scum here, I probably took shillings that you’d handed out. Everyone that’s been here owes their thanks to you. If you want to get more involved, it’s not too late, but don’t beat yourself up about good things you could’ve done better.”

Eren looked over at him, brows knitted, “That sounds odd coming from you somehow… are you changing, _thief?_ ” He asked slyly. 

“Everything I say is ‘odd’ according to you. Maybe I am changing. Maybe you are, who knows?”

“It is unlikely that someone such as myself would change after such a long time. You humans, on the other hand, are far more malleable.”

“I don’t know, it seems like you’re in a new type of situation. Change brings change. I don’t think it’d be such a bad thing to take that stick out of your ass, anyway,” Levi shot a lopsided grin at Eren; it didn’t quite reach his eyes but it wasn’t cocky enough to be a smirk.

“You stole from me, don’t think I’ve forgotten that,” Eren told him, curling his fingers into the lapel of Levi’s jacket, face dark. “I will have that back,” he reached up to take the chain from around his neck.

“And, as any object properly stolen should be, it belongs to me now,” Levi said as he grabbed Eren’s wrists. “You’re not getting it back,” he dropped his voice to a whisper as he realized just how close they were, noses nearly brushing. He trailed his eyes across the details exposed to him at the small distance, from the slivers of emerald green and sky blue that made up the dragon’s irises to the slight chapping on his lips.

Eren swallowed, but didn’t back away, staring him down with an odd sort of determination. He wasn’t about to back away from a challenge.

“You will give it back.”

Levi slid one of the hands that was holding Eren’s wrist captive back up to his shoulder, continuing on until his fingertips brushed the soft strands of hair at the back of his neck. He leaned the smallest bit closer, watching Eren’s pupils dilate and contract.

“I don’t want to.”

Eren’s lip curled, but he was starting to feel uncomfortable. This game of chicken was making his skin tingle beneath the thief’s touch, hairs on his arms bristling. His fingers, now free, curled into the fabric of Levi’s borrowed uniform, clutching the chain beneath the linen of his shirt.  
  
“I will rip it from your neck.”

Closing the scant distance between their lips rather than responding to the empty threat, Levi carded his fingers through the brunette tendrils they rested in. He slackened the grip that he had on Eren’s wrist, choosing instead to rub his thumb at the pulse point beneath the other’s palm.

The dragon stiffened, eyes blown wide with surprise, fingers tightening on the fabric of his molester’s shirt. He wasn’t sure _how_ to react, in fact, forming a spell in the back of his throat with the intent to do-- something… what was he planning? What could he do here in this carriage with the promise to behave? He tried to push him away but only succeeded in pressing his free hand futilely against the firm flesh of his chest, curiosity building pressure in his stomach. _What do I do?_ For the first time in as long as he could remember he had nowhere to run and no idea of the proper response to a situation.

Levi released Eren’s wrist entirely, moving his hands to gently cup the brunette’s face. He tried to coax a reaction from the dragon by tilting his head, adjusting so that their noses didn’t bump quite so much; to no avail. At the continued unresponsiveness he gently took the other’s bottom lip between his teeth, sucking gently before releasing it and returning to the gentle motions he’d begun with.

At that Eren started, shoving him back and away with inhuman strength, spluttering nonsense words and half finished curses as he turned his shoulder and shifted his body away from him. His knees felt a little weak, as if he might go careening if he tried for the other bench, whatever poorly formed spell he’d been considering left a sweet taste in his mouth against the neutral flavor of Levi’s saliva on his tingling lip. _What do I do?_ He wished he could escape. Escape from the carriage and fly. Escape from this uncomfortably tight body. Escape from whatever tension hung in the air now, lapping against the back of his neck.

Levi was flung to the end of the bench, head knocking the wall with a thump that put the earlier noise of frustration to shame. “Ow! Fuck, dammit, words! Words, use them! There’s other ways to tell me to stop than attempting to murder me!” He cradled his head between his hands, kneading at his temples in attempts to stop the throbbing that was syncopated to the dull ring in his ears.

“I was unaware that molesting someone required the molestee to tell them not to do it!” Eren struggled for structure. “I always just thought that harassment was universally unacceptable!” 

“And here I figured the fact that you didn’t move away earlier was a _positive_ thing. I don’t know, I guess _backing the fuck up_ isn’t such a simple thing to do. Stupid me, all my fault, ow.” The rising volume of his rant was quieted rather quickly as it aggravated the chiming noise that was already present.

“You touched your mouth to mine! How was I to react!?” Eren fumed, what little of his tanned face that was visible between long hair and turned cheek was absolutely _scarlet_.

“Stop _shouting_ for the love of fuck,” Levi hissed, concussed brain taking a moment to process anything but the volume at which Eren had spoken. “Wait, wait. Have you not kissed anyone before? I mean I know you’re a dragon and all but you’ve been around for centuries.” 

Eren huddled his shoulders a little further away, turning almost completely away from him. “That is none of your business, _thief_. I should report you to the Commander for acting inappropriately towards me.” He wished there was more weight behind his words, that the mad flutter of his heart in his chest wouldn’t betray him. It was certainly something he’d never experienced. And he couldn’t say he wouldn’t want to experience it once more even if he desperately desired to deny it.

“It’s entirely my business if I was your first kiss. That’s… I don’t know, you’re the sentimental type aren’t you? That’s… I’m sorry?” The words became more stilted as he continued, the confusion of what to do with the revelation stewing in the rest of the muddled mess that was aching his brain. He was just proud that it came out in full sentences.

“Kissing is a wasteful human pastime. A learned response to taste for appropriate pheromones and proper physiological responses,” he elucidated with an attempt at recovering his dignity. “And while kissing between two men is completely evolutionarily redundant, at least they are of like kind-- kissing a creature not of your own species is just far beyond any understandable comprehension.” He wished Armin was here to hear him, for once he was managing to sound intelligent.

“A wasteful pastime?” Levi echoed the words, a touch of pity coloring them. He would have reached out for the dragon again, the realization of just how cripplingly _alone_ he had been for all this time plucking at the place in his chest that was still uncomfortably tender, but even concussed he realized that it could end with loss of limb. “So there was nothing about that that was of any value to you? No appreciation for experiencing something new, no pleasure?”

Eren searched the frosted glass beside his face, digging his nails into the arms of his jacket in response to the question. His first thought was to spit back at him, to respond with venom at the sudden and incomprehensible intrusion, but the recovering beat of his heart slowed him. Was there no value? For dragons, solitary beings save for mating years, Eren was an oddball to begin with. He enjoyed contact with the humans. But this sort of action wasn’t something he had been prepared for.  
  
“This body is nothing more than a homunculus. You understand this?” Eren told him stiffly.

“Well yeah, you already told me that you-you is over in wherever The Other is. Why is understanding that important?”

“Why?” He asked in response, eyes shifting over to his face as his body relaxed just slightly. “Why do something like that? Knowing it is pointless. Knowing I am not of your species. That this body is simply a puppet.” 

“My intention isn’t as complicated as anything to do with evolution, that’s for sure. I’m greedy, and I get pleasure from it. I… don’t dislike you, certainly, so if _you_ also received pleasure then why stop? It has nothing to do with reproduction, or gender, or in this case even species.”

Eren flushed once more, somewhat angrily, “You are saying that you wish to… _no._ ” He said it with a strange sort of hesitance, as if he had considered the thought longer than he should have. “I don’t… that sort of thing is… _hff_ … _pleasure_.” He grumbled. “Humans have no understanding of _pleasure._ ”

“Neither do dragons, clearly. We’re on two entirely separate pages here. Maybe even different books. So unless you want to give me the opportunity to… do a little reading, I don’t understand why you’re so adamant to argue. If you don’t want to do it, I mean, words. Use them. ‘No.’”

“You are a thief and a trespasser!” Eren finally turned to him. “I do not trust you. I do not understand your intentions or your decisions. You are a forsaken anomaly existing outside comprehension and I like it less and less.” But dragon eyes flickered down to his listener’s mouth, betraying his thoughts despite his harsh words.

Levi caught the quick movement of Eren’s gaze and just barely resisted the impulse to swipe his tongue across his lips. “It’s still not a ‘no.’ I’m not going to pressure you into anything, but I would _appreciate_ a straightforward answer.”

“I find you to be absolutely deplorable. Stealing with no regret. Taking what is not yours and even when faced with its proper owner you refuse to return it. Were I not bound by honor--” hesitation stole his words once more. This man had proven himself more than just a thief by this point. Had risked his life and imprisonment in order to assist him… why? ‘Why’ seemed to be the first of many questions that surrounded this man; questions that never seemed to receive any sort of answer. “Why?” He said again with softer eyes.

“Because I’m greedy,” Levi murmured just loud enough to be heard, “ _I_ want to be the one who shows you things you don’t know. You’ve taught me some about dragons and The Other, and I want to teach you some about humans and the way we feel things. Eventually,” he leaned back against the wall and looked at the dragon.

“I know more than enough about humans and their ways,” Eren replied. “I’ve lived amongst you for years, far longer than your thread has even been woven into the Silk, and I understand you better than perhaps even you do.”

“ _Eventually,”_ the thief continued, irritated with being interrupted, “You won’t have to ask me _why_ because you’ll know _me_ and how I _think_. Maybe I’ll even know you by then.”

“And what is it that makes you think I even _want_ to know you or how you _think_?”

“Because you ask questions of your own free will. You call me _odd_ and _strange_ and I figure after five hundred years not much really fits the description. You hesitate when I ask for a clear break with you, you don’t know if you want to know more or not. I do, though, I know I want to know more.” _I know you want to know more._

Eren’s lips parted, shoulders relaxing just slightly beneath his cloak. Contemplation shone in his eyes, hand rising to run over his jaw in yet another show of hesitance. “Huh?” The carriage jerked to a stop and he pushed the curtains aside. _The castle…_ he watched the door open, stepping out and looking around.  
  
“Just make sure they’re all in my office--” Eren could hear a familiar voice, watching Armin step out of the carriage beyond him, looking up at the speaker. He wondered why Armin looked uncomfortable, why his lips were drawn in a tight line, and stepped down off the running board. 

“Jaeger!” His attention was drawn next by Captain Kirchstein with his hands firmly on lanky hips. “You’re coming with me to the trainee quarters.”

Levi straightened his collar absently as he stood, steadying himself as his head spun from the motion. “Where am I going?”

“With me,” a softer voice answered. The freckled young man from before stood off to the side, a soft smile on his face. “I’ll be showing you to your quarters. You’ll be undergoing private training with Commander Erwin.”

“Oh, yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” the thief said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. His opinion of Erwin was on a constantly changing course, and at the moment he wasn’t particularly fond of the man. With the Commander’s current displeasure towards his actions, he was hesitant to spend too much time in the blonde’s company.

“Well… come with me…” Marco suggested.

Eren glanced over his shoulder at Levi as Jean turned to lead him away. For a moment his eyes lingered on Levi’s face; then he turned his back to him and followed the Captain.

Whatever had transpired moments before would have to be pushed away and forgotten.

He had more important things to worry about than a confusing human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello. sorry this is late.
> 
> come talk to us.
> 
>  **windwolf0097:** don't tell them to talk to me.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! We look forward to having you back again next week! Let us know what you think! :)


End file.
